UCSB    LIBRARY 


NEW   LIGHT 


ON    THE 


BIBLE   AND  THE  HOLY  LAND. 


New    Light 


ON    THE 


Bible  and  the  Holy  Land 


BEING 


^Account  of  some  (Recent  (discoveries  in 
the  East 


BY 


BASIL    T.    A.     EYETTS,     M.A. 

Formerly  of  the  Assyrian  Department,  British  Museum. 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW   YORK 

THE   CASSELL    PUBLISHING   CO. 
31  EAST  i7TH  ST.  (UNION  SQUARE) 


PREFACE. 


THE  more  the  records  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  are 
studied,  the  more  light  they  must  throw  on  the  history 
of  the  neighbouring  nation  of  Israel.  The  small 
but  fertile  and  wealthy  district  on  the  eastern  coast 
of  the  Mediterranean,  intervening  between  the  shores 
of  Egypt  and  the  harbours  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  was 
alternately,  in  the  course  of  its  history,  overrun  by  the 
powerful  nations  which  dwelt  on  each  side  of  it :  by  the 
armies  of  the  Nile,  or  by  the  warriors  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates.  On  this"  account  Syria,  Samaria,  and  Judah 
are  frequently  mentioned  in  the  written  monuments  of 
Nineveh  and  Babylon;  and,on  the  other  hand,  the  Hebrew 
literature  teems  with  allusions  to  these  great  cities. 
But  there  was  a  closer  connection  than  this  between  the 
races  of  Western  and  Eastern  Syria,  if  we  may  once 
use  the  latter  name  in  the  wide  sense  sometimes  given 
to  it  by  ancient  authors.  The  Hebrews  originally 
proceeded  from  the  plains  of  ChaldsBa,  according  to  the 
statements  of  their  own  historians  ;  and  the  valley  of 
the  Euphrates  was  the  cradle  of  their  race.  They  were, 
therefore,  akin  to  the  Babylonians  in  speech,  in  ideas, 
and  in  social  organisation ;  and  a  study  of  the  language, 


viii  PREFACE. 

the  literature,  and  the  archaeology  of  the  one  nation 
must  further  the  understanding  of  the  phenomena 
presented  by  the  history  of  the  other.  , 

After  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  were  first  de- 
ciphered, it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  historical 
narratives  of  the  Bible  would  receive  much  elucida- 
tion from  these  new  sources.  Records  of  the 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  monarchs  who  attacked  or 
carried  captive  the  nations  of  Israel  and  Judah  were 
found.  On  certain  clay  cylinders,  Sennacherib  was 
discovered  to  have  left  us  a  brief  account  of  his  war 
with  Hezekiah.  The  name  of  Sargon,  always  a  puzzle 
to  commentators,  who  had  tried  to  identify  him  with 
Tiglath-Pileser  or  Shalmaneser,  was  found  to  be  that 
of  a  powerful  monarch  who  was  the  father  of  Sen- 
nacherib, and  who  invaded  Syria,  according  to  the 
native  records,  as  well  as  according  to  the  prophet 
Isaiah.  In  the  Assyrian  chronicles  of  Tiglath-Pileser 
III.,  this  prince  alludes  to  the  kings  of  Israel  and 
Judah,  whom  he  vanquished  or  who  paid  him  tribute : 
to  Menahem,  to  Pekah,  to  Hosea,  and  to  Azariah ;  and 
only  recently  it  has  been  found  that  Pul  was  the  name 
given  by  the  Babylonians,  as  well  as  by  the  author  of 
the  Second  Book  of  Kings  in  certain  passages,  to 
the  same  Tiglath-Pileser  III.  Moreover,  an  Assyrian 
monument,  known  as  the  Black  Obelisk  of  Nimroud, 
was  found  to  exhibit  the  name  of  Jehu,  who  paid 
tribute  to  Shalmaneser  II.  Besides  these  and  many 
other  illustrations  or  confirmations  of  the  history  of 
the  people  of  Israel  contained  in  the  Hebrew  books, 


PREFACE.  ix 

documents  were  discovered  which  were  compared  with 
the  primeval  narratives  of  the  Book  of  Genesis ; 
especially  that  relating  the  story  of  the  Flood, 
translated  and  published  by  George  Smith,  in  1872. 
The  principal  points  of  comparison  between  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  and  the  Bible  found  up  to  a 
certain  date,  have  been  collected  by  Professor  Schrader 
in  his  work  on  "  The  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  and  the 
Old  Testament,"  afterwards  translated  into  English. 

But  Assyriology  is  a  progressive  science.  Not  only 
does  the  material  already  brought  to  light  require  the 
study  of  many  years  before  its  philological  and  historical 
difficulties  can  be  mastered ;  but  there  is  also  a  constant 
addition  of  new  material,  the  result  of  fresh  excavations 
on  the  ancient  sites  of  Mesopotamia  and  Chaldsea. 
During  the  last  few  years  the  Americans  and  Germans 
have  been  conducting  researches  among  the  mounds 
that  mark  the  place  of  former  cities,  but  the  difficulties 
placed  in  the  way  are  so  great  that  it  is  only  occasionally 
that  success  has  attended  these  efforts.  If  only  the 
numerous  ruins  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  could  be  fully 
and  systematically  laid  bare,  a  work  of  enormous  labour 
and  expense,  requiring  the  co-operation  of  the  Turkish 
Government,  it  is  certain  that  the  result  would  richly 
repay  the  undertaking,  in  spite  of  the  destruction  that 
has  been  wrought  upon  the  ancient  monuments  by  the 
natives.  Even  now  the  mounds  of  Nineveh,  after  the 
labours  of  Sir  H.  Layard  and  Mr.  Rassam,  which  pro- 
duced such  marvellous  fruit,  must  conceal  immense 
treasures ;  while  the  ruins  of  Babylon  can  only  have 
b 


x  PREFACE. 

yielded  a  very  small  part  of  their  hidden  wealth. 
Besides  the  capitals,  there  were  formerly  flourishing 
cities  scattered  over  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates,  and  still  represented  hy  the  numerous  arti- 
ficial hills  that  dot  the  plains  and  await  excavation. 

In  consequence  of  the  constant  accessions  to  our 
knowledge  which  follow  the  arrival  of  new  materials 
and  the  interpretation  of  materials  already  acquired, 
every  decade  and  even  every  year  must  throw  new 
light,  if  only  a  few  dim  rays,  on  some  corner  of  the 
vast  field  of  Biblical  research.  Thus,  during  the  last 
ten  years  the  study  of  the  monuments  discovered  by 
M.  de  Sarzec  have  already  taught  us  something  about 
the  earliest  civilization  of  the  district  from  whence 
Abraham,  according  to  the  Book  of  Genesis,  migrated 
to  the  land  of  Canaan :  about  the  state  of  the  arts,  and 
incidentally  about  the  religious  and  political  condition 
of  that  region  at  a  very  remote  period.  The  subsequent 
excavations  of  M.  Dieulafoy  have  added  much  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  architecture  of  the  AchaBmenian  period 
in  Persia,  and  of  the  minor  arts  which  accompany  that 
principal  branch  of  art;  at  the  same  time  the  recon- 
struction, which  is  now  possible,  of  the  dwelling  of 
Xerxes  and  Artaxerxes,  the  remains  of  which  have  been 
laid  bare  by  the  French  expedition,  illustrates  those 
passages  in  the  Bible  which  refer  to  "  Shushan  the 
palace,"  and  is  of  much  general  interest  on  that  account. 

But  the  principal  discovery  of  the  last  few  years  has 
undoubtedly  been  that  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets. 
These  documents  create  a  new  chapter  of  history  ;  they 


PREFACE.  ri 

tell  us  for  the  first  time  what  was  the  condition  of 
Syria  during  the  period  immediately  preceding  the 
Exodus  of  the  Israelites,  when  the  Canaanite  was  still 
in  the  land ;  for  the  indications  derived  from  Egyptian 
sources  were  too  scanty  to  afford  a  clear  idea  of  the 
state  of  Western  Asia  under  the  supremacy  of  the 
Pharaohs. 

Professor  Sayce  was  the  first  to  detect  the  name  of 
Jerusalem  on  one  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets,  which 
were  subsequently  found  to  include  half  a  dozen  letters, 
written  by  the  representative  of  the  Egyptian  power 
in  that  city  to  his  suzerain.  According  to  Josephus, 
Jerusalem  was  founded,  in  the  year  B.C.  2107,  by 
Melchisedech,  whom  the  historian  calls  a  "  prince  of 
the  Canaanites  ;  "  but  without  accepting  this  date,  we 
may  be  sure  that  when  the  kings  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty  added  Jerusalem  to  the  list  of  tributary  towns, 
she  must  already  have  been  for  several  centuries  in 
existence.  Nevertheless,  this  was  still  the  period  of 
the  childhood  of  Jerusalem,  alluded  to  by  the  prophet 
Ezekiel,  who  reminds  the  city  of  her  early  history  : — 
"  Thy  birth  and  thy  nativity  is  of  the  land  of 
Canaan ;  thy  father  was  an  Amorite,  and  thy  mother  an 
Hittite." 

According  to  the  letters  found  at  Tell  el-Amarna, 
the  Hittites  and  the  Amorites  were  still  in  possession 
of  the  country  around  Jerusalem,  although  they  were, 
from  time  to  time  reduced  by  their  powerful  neighbours 
from  the  Nile  into  a  state  of  partial  submission,  and 
obliged  to  pay  tribute  to  the  Pharaoh. 


xii  PREFACE. 

It  is  evident,  from  the  documents  of  which  we  are 
speaking,  that  even  the  payment  of  tribute  and  the 
recognition  of  the  supremacy  of  Egypt  was  not  long 
endured  without  resistance  by  the  turbulent  tribes  of 
Canaan.  The  yoke  placed  upon  their  necks  by  the 
earlier  kings  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  seems  to  have 
been  thrown  off  under  the  later  monarchs  of  the  same 
line ;  and  the  way  was  made  ready  for  the  conquest  of 
the  Israelites,  who  found  no  power  able  to  restrain  their 
march  through  the  country,  and  no  mighty  suzerain 
to  whom  appeal  could  be  made  for  help  by  the  van- 
quished inhabitants.  Even  the  letters  from  Tell  el- 
Amarna  show  us  that  such  appeals  were  made  in  vain, 
under  similar  circumstances,  to  Amenophis  IV.,  and 
that  in  his  reign  the  Hittites  and  other  tribes  overran 
the  Egyptian  possessions  without  much  resistance. 

The  letters  from  various  princes  of  Western  Asia 
found  at  Tell  el-Amarna  disclose  a  state  of  advanced 
civilization  in  that  region,  and  show  the  great  wealth 
and  luxury  of  the  Courts  at  that  early  period.  The  art 
of  working  in  metals,  in  particular,  appears  already  to 
have  arrived  at  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  The  com- 
mercial intercourse  of  the  kingdoms  of  Western  Asia 
with  one  another,  and  with  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  is 
proved  to  have  reached  a  state  of  much  activity.  We 
hear  of  the  merchants  of  the  King  of  Babylon,  who 
frequently  passed  through  the  land  of  Canaan  on  their 
way  to  Egypt,  just  as  the  merchants  of  Solomon  carried 
on  their  traffic  with  the  neighbouring  centres  of  trade. 
After  this  there  is  no  reason  to  be  surprised  when  we 


PREFACE.  xiii 

find  proofs  of  trade  between  Babylon  and  Canaan  at  the 
time  of  the  Israelitish  invasion  :  the  Babylonish  gar- 
ment, dipped  in  the  scarlet  dye  for  which  the  land  of 
Shinar  was  famous,  had  been  sold  at  Jericho  by  a  mer- 
chant from  the  Euphrates,  passing  through  the  land  as 
his  fellows  had  done  for  many  years — perhaps  ever 
since  the  conquests  of  Thothmes  I.  had  begun  to  bring 
the  Egyptian  kings  into  close  relations  with  the  regions 
of  Mesopotamia. 

Babylon  was,  throughout  her  history,  a  great  com- 
mercial centre.  She  was,  as  Ezekiel  says,  a  city  of 
merchants,  situated  in  a  land  of  traffic.  In  the  Tell  el- 
Amarna  tablets  we  see  her  exchanging  her  wares  with 
the  Egyptians  in  return  for  the  gold  which  the  mines 
of  Eastern  Africa  poured  into  the  valley  of  the  Nile,' 
until  it  became  "  like  dust  "  in  that  region,  and  was 
sought  for  from  thence  by  all  the  most  civilised 
monarchs  of  the  time. 

The  geographical  results  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna 
tablets  are  already  important.  We  acquire  information 
from  them  concerning  many  cities  and  countries,  well 
known  in  later  times,  but  of  which  the  period  to  which 
our  documents  belong  had  hitherto  yielded  no  memorial. 
Further  study  will,  perhaps,  lead  to  the  identification  of 
some  names  which  occur  here,  but  which  are  not  yet 
certainly  connected  with  names  known  to  us  from 
other  sources.  Such  is  the  land  of  Mitani,  a  power- 
ful and  highly  cultivated  State,  the  king  of  which 
writes  on  terms  of  equality  to  the  Pharaoh,  who 
on  his  side  shows  his  friendship  by  allying  himself 


xiv  PREFACE. 

with  the  reigning  family  through  marriage  with  more 
than  one  of  its  daughters ;  and  such,  again,  is  the 
land  of  Alashiya,  productive  of  copper,  and  sending  its 
ships  and  merchants  to  the  mouths  of  the  Nile.  All 
we  know  of  the  position  of  these  countries  is  that  the 
former  lay  in  or  near  the  region  of  Mesopotamia,  and 
that  the  latter  was  called  in  Egyptian  Alesa,  and 
mentioned  together  with  cities  or  States  of  Syria. 

The  principal  authorities  for  the  statements  con- 
tained in  the  following  pages  must  now  be  given.  M.  de 
Sarzec's  discoveries  are  described  in  Decouvertes  en 
Chaldee,  which  is  partly  his  own  work  and  partly  that  of 
M.  L.  Heuzey,  the  keeper  of  the  Oriental  Department 
of  the  Louvre ;  the  book  also  includes  some  translations 
of  the  inscriptions  by  the  late  M.  Amiaud,  who  pub- 
lished other  work  of  the  same  sort  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur 
Assyrioloyie.  The  researches  of  M.  Dieulafoy  are  ex- 
pounded in  his  work  entitled  L'Acropole  de  Suse ;  and 
a  narrative  of  the  expedition  is  given  by  Madame  Dieu- 
lafoy in  A  Suse,  Journal  des  Fouilles.  The  tablets 
from  Tell  el-Amarna  at  Berlin  and  at  Gizeh  have  been 
published,  in  the  text  only,  by  Drs.  Winckler  and  Abel : 
the  title  of  their  work  is  Der  Thontafelfund  von  el- 
Amarna.  Translations  of  some  of  the  texts  given  to 
the  world  in  the  last-named  work  have  been  issued 
by  Professor  Sayce,  Dr.  Winckler,  Dr.  Zimmern,  and 
others.  The  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  at  the  British 
Museum  were  published  last  spring  by  the  Trustees  ; 
the  edition  of  the  texts  is  the  work  of  Dr.  Bezold, 
the  introduction  and  summary  are  the  joint 


PREFACE.  xv 

production  of  Dr.  Bezold  and  Dr.  Budge.  In  the 
last-named  portions  of  the  book  translations  of  many 
passages  are  to  be  found,  besides  paraphrases  which 
are  almost  equivalent  to  translations.  A  bibliography 
is  also  appended.  The  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  in 
the  possession  of  M.  Bouriant,  and  those  at  Gizeh, 
were  published  in  a  transcription  and  translation  by 
Professor  Sayce  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for 
Biblical  Archeology  of  1888.  The  only  independent 
translations  from  cuneiform  inscriptions  in  the  present 
work  are  some  passages  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets, 
and  some  contracts  of  the  time  of  Evil-Merodach 
and  Neriglissar,  translated  from  the  texts  published  by 
the  author.  A  collection  of  the  principal  historical  texts 
of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  has  recently  been  edited,  in 
the  form  of  a  transcription  and  translation,  by  Professor 
Schrader  of  Berlin,  and  is  the  work  of  the  leading  Assy- 
riologists  of  Germany.  Our  knowledge  of  the  astro- 
nomy of  the  Babylonians  is  now  to  be  derived  from  the 
work  of  Father  Strassmaier,  S.J.,  and  Father  Epping, 
S. J.,  entitled  Astronomisches  am  Babylon ;  the  same 
authors  have  published  articles  on  the  subject  in  the 
Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie  and  other  periodicals.  Before 
these  works,  the  writings  of  Professor  Sayce  and  Pro- 
fessor Oppert  were  all  that  we  had  to  depend  upon ;  the 
former  published  an  article  on  The  Astronomy  and  Astro- 
logy of  the  Babylonians  in  the  Transactions  of  ike  Society 
for  Biblical  Archeology,  1874.  A  corpus  of  Babylonian 
contracts,  or  legal  deeds,  from  the  time  of  Nabopolassar 
to  that  of  Darius  Hystaspis,  has  been  published  by 


xvi  PREFACE. 

Father  Strassmaier,  wlio  has  made  these  documents  for 
the  first  time  available  to  students.  Other  works  are 
referred  to  in  foot-notes. 

The  following  chapters  have  been  written  with  the 
view  of  presenting  a  brief  account  of  the  discoveries, 
bearing  upon  the  history  related  in  the  Bible,  which 
have  been  made  during  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years,  and 
of  doing  this  in  a  simple  form,  omitting  all  matters  that 
do  not  appear  to  be  of  general  interest.  Some  of  these 
discoveries  are  already  well  known  through  the  works 
of  Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  of  Canon  Rawlinson,  of  Professor 
Sayce,  and  of  others.  This  is  especially  the  case  with 
regard  to  Chapters  XII.  and  XIII.  It  is  important, 
however,  to  see  at  a  glance  how  many  illustrations  of 
the  Bible  from  contemporary  sources  have  been  found 
during  the  last  few  years,  and  how  much  hope  this  may 
arouse  in  us  of  many  more  illustrations  which  may  be 
given  by  further  study  and  further  excavations. 

The  history  of  the  decipherment  of  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions  here  given,  is,  of  course,  intended  not  for 
philologists,  but  for  ordinary  readers,  who  may  some- 
times be  under  misapprehensions  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  processes  through  which  the  clay  tablets  have 
been  read  and  interpreted.  Details  intelligible  only 
to  scholars  have  therefore  been  omitted;  and  it  has  also 
been  impossible  to  exhibit  the  innumerable  confirma- 
tions, which  have  come  in  from  all  sides,  of  the  correct- 
ness of  the  decipherments.  The  intention  has  been  to 
indicate  in  some  measure  the  methods  followed  by 
Assyriologists,  so  far  as  they  are  intelligible  to  the 


PREFACE.  xvii 

laity.  It  is  necessary  to  remind  the  latter,  however, 
that  while  the  general  results  of  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian research  are  now  placed  beyond  a  doubt,  there  is 
still  much  to  be  done  before  either  the  grammar  or  the 
dictionary  can  be  completed ;  and  that  there  may  still 
be  much  uncertainty  with  regard  to  the  interpretation 
of  particular  words  or  particular  passages. 


CONTENTS. 


HISTORY    OF    THE    DECIPHERMENT    OF    THE    CUNEIFORM 
INSCRIPTIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE    EUIN    OF    NINEVEH    AND    BABYLON. 

PAGE 

Sherley's  impressions  of  Ruins  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh — History  of  these 
Cities  since  the  time  when  they  ceased  to  be  Independent  Capitals — 
Allusions  of  Classical  Authors — Of  Syrian  and  Mahometan  Writers — 
European  Travellers  from  Benjamin  of  Tudela  to  the  present  day — In- 
terest aroused  by  inscriptions  found  among  Ruins — How  were  they  to 
be  deciphered  P.  ..........  1 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE    PALACES    OF    PEESEPOLIS. 

Legend  of  Jemsheed,  to  whom  the  Natives  ascribe  the  Ruins — Description 
of  Palaces — Persepolis  in  Classical  Authors— Other  Persian  legends 
relating  to  the  Ruins — European  Travellers  — Barbaro — Gouvea — 
Silva  y  Figueroa — Sir  T.  Herbert  and  others — Chardin — De  Bruin — 
Niebuhr — Results  of  their  Researches 50 

CHAPTER  III. 
DECIPHERMENT    OF    THE    OLD    PERSIAN    INSCRIPTIONS. 

Attempt  on  part  of  Natives  to  decipher  Cuneiform  Characters — First  notice 
of  inscriptions  at  Persepolis  by  Antonio  de  Gouvea — Sir  Thomas  Her- 
bert's account  of  them— Hyde's  view  that  they  were  simply  orna- 
mental designs— Similar  view  held  subsequently  by  Samuel  Witte — 
Resemblance  of  cuneiform  characters  to  Chinese  noticed  by  Kaempfer, 
Von  Murr,  and  Raspe — Comparison  of  the  characters  with  Runic 
writing  by  Court  de  Gebelin,  Celsius,  and  Bock — Publication  of  the 
Caylus  Vase  —  Copies  of  Persepolitan  inscriptions  published  by 
Kaempfer,  Chardin,  De  Bruin,  and,  above  all,  by  Niebuhr — First 


xx  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

interpretation  of  Zend  by  Anquetil-Dupcrron — With  help  of  Zend, 
Tychsen  and  Miinter  attempt  decipherment  of  Persepolitan  inscrip- 
tions— Grotefend  at  last  successful  in  decipherment — Do  Sacy's  inter- 
pretation of  Sassanian  inscriptions — Work  of  decipherment  carried  on 
oy  Saint-Martin,  Rask,  Lassen,  Burnouf,  Rawlinson,  and  others  .  .  79 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    DECIPHERMENT    OP    THE    ASSYRIAN    AND    BABYLONIAN 
INSCRIPTIONS. 

First  inscriptions  found  at  Babylon — Bricks  procured  by  the  East  India 
Company  from  the  ruins — The  Caillou  Michaux — First  attempts  at 
decipherment — Lichtenstein — Grotefend — Botta's  excavations  at  Khor- 
sabad — Layard's  excavations  at  Nimroud  and  Kouyunjik — Decipher- 
ment— Botta — De  Saulcy — Hincks — Rawlinson- — Oppert— Criticism  of 
Ewald  and  Renan — Progress  of  Assyriology — Various  aids  to  decipher- 
ment and  interpretation  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .105 


flsrt  II 

RECENT    DISCOVERIES. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE     DISCOVERIES    AT    TELLO. 

Date  of  invention  of  writing  among  Semitic  peoples — Formerly  doubted 
whether  writing  was  invented  before  Moses — Discovery  of  inscrip- 
tions at  Ur — Civilization  of  Chaldaea  before  Abraham — Rassum's 
excavations  at  Sippara — M.  de  Sarzec  excavates  mounds  of  Tello  — 
Physical  characters  of  the  regions  of  Southern  Babylonia — Marshes 
— Abundance  of  palm-trees  —  Purchase  by  French  Government  of 
antiquities  from  Tcll-o — Their  great  interest — Complete  and  authentic 
chronological  records  possessed  by  the  Babylonians — Care  with  which 
these  records  were  preserved — Inscriptions  of  Rammaii-Nirari  I., 
Tiglath-Pileser  I.,  Sardanapalus,  Nabonidus — Last-named  king  pro- 
vides us  with  dates  of  Sargon  I.  and  Naram-Sin — Vase  of  latter  found 
at  Tello — Sculptures  of  different  dates  found  a,t  Tello—"  Eagle  and 
Lion  Tablet "— "  Vulture-Stela  "—Governors  of  Lagash  (Tello)— De- 
scription of  their  palace — Statues  of  Gudea — Their  costume — Gudea 
as  architect — Inscriptions  upon  the  statues 130 

CHAPTER  VI. 
.  THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS. 

Discovery  of  the  Tablets — Their  Date — The  Remains  at  Tell  el-Amarna — 
Character  of  the  Tablets — The  Epistolary  style  of  the  period — Adula- 
tion of  the  Pharaoh — Use  of  the  Babylonian  Script  and  Language 
throughout  Western  Asia — Babylonian  conquests  in  Syria — Egyptian 
conquest  of  Syria  during  the  rule  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  .  .163 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS    (continued) — LETTERS     FROM 
MESOPOTAMIAN    PRINCES    TO    THE    KINGS    OF     EGYPT. 

PAOE 

Purposes  with  which  Mesopotamia:!  princes  sent  letters  to  Egyptian  kings 
— Intermarriage  of  royal  family  of  Egypt  with  those  of  Mesopotamia^ 
States — Aunt,  sister,  and  daughter  of  Tushratta,  king  of  Mitani, 
married  to  Amenophis  III.  of  Egypt — Dowries  of  these  princesses- 
Introduction  of  worship  of  Ishtar,  or  Ashtoreth,  from  Mesopotamia 
into  Egypt — Mention  of  Gilu-khipa,  Tushratta's  sister,  on  Egyptian 
scarabasus — Letter  of  Tushratta  referring  to  rebellion  in  his  own 
country  and  to  war  with  the  Hittites — Letter  from  Amenophis  III.  to 
the  king  of  Babylon,  referring  to  his  sister  who  was  married  to  the 
Pharaoh — History  of  Babylon  at  this  period — The  trade  of  this  time 
carried  on  by  kings — Solomon  the  type  of  the  royal  merchants  of 
antiquity—  Letters  of  kings  demanding  gold  from  Egypt — Letters  from 
the  king  of  Alashiya  to  Pharaoh 186 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS    (continued). 

Canaan  before  the  Exodus — Political  conditions  of  Canaan — Forms  of  the 
name — Petty  kings  of  Canaan — Principal  cities  mentioned  in  the  Tell 
el-Amarna  T;  blets — Tyre — Byblus — Officers  of  Egyptian  king  in  these 
cities — Their  duties — Their  overthrow  by  rebels — Jerusalem — Way 
prepared  for  invasion,  of  Israelites  .......  207 

CHAPTER  IX. 
8HTJSHAN    THE     PALACE. 

M.  Dieulafoy's  first  journey  to  Persia  and  visit  to  Shush,  the  ancient  Susa 
or  Shushan — Loftus's  excavations  on  this  site  in  1852 — Inscription  dis- 
covered by  him — M.  Dieulafoy's  second  journey  to  Susa  in  1885 — 
Account  of  his  excavations — Character  of  people  and  country — His  dis- 
covery of  remains  of  the  Apaddna,  or  hall  of  audience,  built  by  Darius 
I.  and  restored  by  Artaxerxes  II. — The  architecture  of  this  hall — 
Columns — Enamelled  bricks —Mention  of  the  palace  of  Susa  in  the 
Bible  :  Daniel,  Nehemiah,  Esther — Conquest  of  Susa  by  Sardana- 
palus  in  the  seventh  century  B.C. — Use  of  the  Apaddna  by  Persian  kings 
— Their  banquets — Their  various  drinking-vessels — Conquest  of  Susa 
by  Alexander — Treasures  found  there  by  him — Elucidation  of  the  Book 
of  Esther  from  secular  sources — Name  of  Ahasuerus  or  Xerxes  .  .  229 

CHAPTER  X. 
THE    STAR-GAZERS     OF    BABYLON. 

Chaldaean  astrologers  in  the  Roman  Empire — Famous  predictions — Astro- 
logy in  the  East  to  present  day — Isaiah's  allusion  to  Babylonian 
astronomers  —  Astrological  tablets  from  Babylonia  —  Antiquity  of 
observations  of  stars  in  Babylonia — Use  of  Babylonian  records  by 
Ptolemy — Discovery  of  original  record  of  an  eclipse  mentioned  by  bin! 


xxii  CONTENTS. 

I'AO« 

— Discoveries  of  Strassmaier  and  Epping— Babylonian  observatories — 
Tower  of  Babel — Divisions  of  time  introduced  from  Babylon  into  other 
countries 258 

CHAPTER  XI. 
LEGAL    DEEDS     OF    THE    BABYLONIANS. 

Deeds  of  sale  described  by  Jeremiah,  compared  with  Babylonian  documents 
of  same  character— System  of  pledges — History  of  Evil-Merodach  — 
Chronology  of  Babylonian  contracts — Kings  of  Babylon — Last  kings 
of  Assyria — Khammurabi  identified  with  Amraphel — Sales  of  slaves — 
Wealth  of  priests  of  Sun-god  at  Sippara  — Sales  of  houses — House-rent 
— Interest  paid  on  money — Bills  ........  277 

CHAPTER  XII. 
LAST    DAYS    OF    THE    BABYLONIAN    MONARCHY. 

Belshazzar  a  puzzle  to  commentators  before  discovery  of  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions— Account  by  Berosus  of  last  days  of  Babylonian  monarchy — 
Herodotus — Canon  of  Ptolemy — Mention  of  Belshazzar  in  inscriptions 
of  his  father,  Nabonidus — Inscription  of  Cyrus — Discovery  of  annals 
of  Nabonidus  proved  Belshazzar  to  have  acted  as  regent — Conquest  of 
Babylon  by  Cyrus— Character  of  the  last  king  of  Babylon  and  causes 
which  led  to  his  downfall 298 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

MISCELLANEOUS    DISCOVERIES    OF    RECENT    TEARS. 

Difficulty  in  identification  of  Pul,  the  Assyrian  king — His  invasion  of 
Samaria — History  of  Tiglath-Pileser  III. — Final  identification,  through 
discovery  of  cuneiform  inscriptions,  of  Tiglath-Pileser  with  Pul — 
Other  instances  of  double  names  in  Assyria  and  among  Israelites — 
Discovery  that  name  of  Gisdubar,  the  Babylonian  hero,  is  to  be  pro- 
nounced as  Gilgamesh — Discovery  of  new  version  of  Babylonian  legend 
of  creation — Assyrian  hymns  and  psalms  .  .  .  ...  •  315 

CHAPTER   XIV. 
A    SUMMARY    OF    FORMER    RESULTS. 

Babylonian  legends  of  creation — Story  of  Flood — Foundation  of  ancient 
cities  of  Mesopotamia— Size  of  Nineveh — Tower  of  Babel— Ur  of  the 
Chaldees — Haran — Invasion  of  Chedorlaomer  and  his  allies — Monetary 
system  of  Babylonia — Period  described  in  second  Book  of  Kings, 
Omri,  Ahab,  Jehu,  Azariah,  Menahem,  Ahaz,  Pekah,  Hoshea — Siege 
of  Samaria  begun  in  reign  of  Shalrnaneser  and  finished  in  that  of 
Sargon — So,  king  of  Egypt—  Deportation  of  the  people  of  Samaria — 
Sargon's  expedition  against  Ashdod — Sennacherib's  invasion  of  Judah 
— Defeat  of  Tirhakah,  and  conquest  of  Egypt  by  Esarhaddon  and 
Sardanapalus — Merodach-baladan — Manasseh  of  Judah  tributary  to 
Esarhaddon  and  Sardanapalus — Manasseh  taken  to  Babylon — The 
"  great  and  noble  Asnapper "  perhaps  Sardanapalus — Capture  and 
plunder  of  No-Ammon,  or  Thebes,  by  the  latter  monarch—Nebuchad- 
nezzar— Persian  kings 328 


CONTENTS.  xxiii 

CHAPTER  XV 

THE    ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS. 

I'AQE 

Frequent  invasions  of  Syria  by  Assyrians  for  the  sake  of  tribute  or  plunder 
—  The  devastation  wrought  by  them — Assyrians  the  first  to  found  an 
empire — Conquests  of  Sargon  I. — Kings  of  Ur — Invasion  of  Chedor- 
laomer — Egyptian  preponderance  in  Western  Asia  after  expulsion  of 
Hyksos  and  during  eighteenth  dynasty — Tiglath-Pileser  I.  and  his 
conquests — Ashur-nasir-pal  and  his  conquests — Shalmaneser  II.  and  his 
wars — Campaignsof  Shamshi-Ramman — Eamman-nirarilH.—  Tiglath- 
Pileser  III.  and  his  conquests — Sargon  II. — His  conquests  more  exten- 
sive than  those  of  his  predecessors — Sennacherib — Account  of  his  war 
with  Hezekiah — Conquests  of  Esarhaddon  and  Sardanapalus — Ne- 
buchadnezzar followed  the  example  of  his  Assyrian  predecessors  .  .  354 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE    CULTURE    OF    ASSYRIA    AND    BABYLONIA. 

Wealth  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon — Their  trade — Traditions  of  their  riches 
among  the  Greeks — The  precious  metals — Copper —Art  of  working 
in  metals — Clothing — Purple  garments — Embroideries — Ivory  orna- 
ments—-Glass —Decoration  lavished  upon  all  that  surrounded  the 
Assyrians — Form  and  arrangement  of  houses  and  their  decoration — 
Sculpture — Writing  and  literature — Omens  and  magic — Connection  of 
medicine  with  magic — Music — Laws  of  property  ....  384 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
ASSYRIAN    AND    BABYLONIAN    RELIGION. 

Form  of  the  universe — Connection  of  gods  with  the  heavenly  bodies — 
Principal  gods :  Bel-Merodach,  the  god  of  Babylon ;  his  son,  Nebo ; 
Rimmon,  Nergal,  Tan  .muz,  Dagon,  Ashtoreth  or  Ishtar,  Ashur  the 
god  of  Assyria — Multitudes  of  inferior  gods  and  spirits — Images  of 
gods — Their  worship 414 

CHAPTER  XVIH. 
THE    ASSYRIAN    AND    BABYLONIAN    LANGUAGE. 

Assyrian  and  Babylonian  languages  almost  identical — Their  use  for  com- 
parison with  Hebrew — Their  monuments  contemporary  with  Old  Tes- 
tament— Later  date  of  literatures  of  other  Semitic  languages — Instances 
of  help  afforded  by  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  language  to  understand- 
ing of  Hebrew — Conclusion 444 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAOK 

TABLETS  FOUND  AT  TELL  EL-AMARNA Frontis. 

SARDANAPALUS  IN  HIS  CHARIOT 5 

SIEGE  OF  A  TOWN  BY  THE  ASSYRIANS        .......  9 

EUPHRATES   AND    PLAIN    OF   BABYLON,  RUIN  OF  BIRS-NIMROUD   IN   THE 

DISTANCE 25 

SITE  OF  NINEVEH         ••••.......  30 

AKERKUP  OR  NIMROD'S  TOWEU  .........  35 

THE  BEHISTUN  HOCK 103 

THE  "  CAILLOU  MICHAUX  " 109 

CYLINDRICAL  SEALS  FROM  BABYLONIA '.         .112 

WINGED  BULL  FROM  KHOHSABAD         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .115 

MUKEYYER,  IDENTIFIED  BY  SlR  H.  RAWLINSON  WITH  Us,  OF  THE  CHAXDEES  132 

FRAGMENT  OF  THE  VULTURE-STELA 148 

STATUE  OF  GUDEA  AS  ARCHITECT 161 

FRIEZE  FROM  BYBLUS,  EGYPTIAN  WINGED  DISK 218 

MODERN  TOWN  OF  SHUSTER 233 

MOUNDS  OF  SHUSH  OR  SUSA 237 

CAPITALS  OF  COLUMNS  AT  SUSA 240 

FRIEZE  OF  LIONS  AT  SUSA 242 

RESTORATION  OF  THE  APADANA  AT  SUSA    .         .         .         ....  250 

RESTORATION  OF  ASSYRIAN  OR  BABYLONIAN  TOWER  IN  STAGES.         .  •'.''  271 

BlRS-NlMROUD  :    THE    RUINS    OF    BlT-ZlDA      .             .             .             .            ...  273 

THE  KUSH,  OR  RUINS  OF  THE  PALACE  OF  NEBUCHADNEZZAR,  AT  BABYLON  301 

SOLITARY  TAMARISK-TREB  AMONG  THE  RUINS  OF  THE  PALACE  OF  BABYLON  306 

SARGON  :  BAS-RELIEF  FROM  HIS  PALACE  AT  KHOBSABAD     ....  320 
VILLAGE  OF  NEBI-YUNUS  AMONG   THE    RUINS  OF   NINEVEH,    CONTAINING 

THE  SO-CALLED  ToMB  OF  JONAH 323 

SACRED  TREE 330 

ASSYRIAN  VESSEL _  ;588 

ASSYRIAN  SWORDS  AND  FLY-FLAP 339 

ASSYRIAN  CHARIOT  AND  TIARA 390 

KING  PUNISHING  CAPTIVES 393 

SENNACHERIB  ON  HIS  THRONE 394 

ASSYRIAN  HEAD-STALL 397 

ASSYRIAN  JEWELLERY 393 

IMAGINARY  RESTORATION  OF  ASSYRIAN  PALACE  ....                .  402 


NEW  LIGHT  ON  THE  BIBLE 

AND 

THE  HOLY  LAND. 


I. 

HISTOEY    OF    THE    DECIPHERMENT    OF    THE    CUNEIFORM 
INSCRIPTIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  RUIN  OF  NINEVEH  AND  BABYLON. 

"  I  WILL  speake  of  Babylon ;  not  to  the  intent  to  tell  stories, 
either  of  the  huge  ruines  of  the  first  Towne  or  the  splendour  of 
the  second,  but — because  nothing  doth  impose  anything  in  man's 
nature  more  than  example — to  shew  the  truth  of  God's  word,  whose 
vengeances,  threatened  by  His  Prophets,  are  truely  succeeded  in  all 
those  parts. 

"  All  the  ground  on  which  Babylon  was  spred  is  left  now  deso- 
late ;  nothing  standing  in  that  Peninsula  between  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Tigris,  but  only  part,  and  that  a  small  part,  of  the  greate 
Tower,  which  God  hath  suffered  to  stand  (if  man  may  speake  so 
confidently  of  His  greate  impenetrable  counsels),  for  an  eternal 
Testimony  of  His  greate  work  in  the  confusion  of  Man's  pride,  and 
that  Arke  of  Nebuchadnezzar  for  as  perpetual  a  memory  of  his 
greate  idolatry  and  condigne  punishment. 

"  Ninive,  that  which  God  Himself  calleth  That  greate  Citie,  hath 
not  one  stone  standing  which  may  give  memory  of  the  being  of 
a  towne.  One  English  mile  from  it  is  a  place  called  Mosul,  a  small 

B 


2  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    SIDLE. 

thing,  rather  to  be  a  witnesse  of  the  other's  mightinesse  and  God's 
judgment  than  of  any  fashion  of  Magnificence  in  it  selfe." 

SUCH  were  the  impressions  and  reflections  of  Anthony 
Sherley,  a  protege  of  the  Earl  of  Essex  in  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth,  and  the  first  Englishman  who  has  given 
us  an  account  of  the  remains  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon. 
He  had  been  sent  on  a  military  adventure  to  Eer- 
rara,  to  assist  the  Duke  with  a  body  of  troops  against 
the  attacking  forces  of  the  Pope  ;  but  on  his  arrival  in 
Italy  he  had  found  the  city  already  in  the  possession 
of  the  Papal  army.  Sherley 's  patron,  not  wishing 
him  to  return  to  England  marked  with  the  stigma 
of  failure,  now  proposed  that  he  should  undertake  a 
journey  to  the  East,  with  various  objects,  both  public 
and  private :  partly  to  help  forward  the  newly-estab- 
lished trade  in  Asiatic  Turkey,  and  partly  to  lend 
his  aid  to  the  scheme  of  "Indian  Navigation,  then 
principiated  in  Holland  and  muttered  of  in  England." 
Accordingly,  Sherley  received  large  means  and  letters 
of  credit  to  the  Company  of  Merchants  at  Aleppo, 
started  from  Venice  in  May,  1599,  and  on  arriving 
in  Syria  joined  a  caravan  which  was  about  to  make 
its  way  through  Mesopotamia  to  Persia. 

Sherley's  observations,  in  spite  of  certain  topo- 
graphical inaccuracies,  represent  fairly  well  the  effect 
produced,  by  the  famous  ruins  which  he  describes,  upon 
the  minds  of  travellers  since  his  time ;  who,  on  account 
of  their  familiarity  with  the  vivid  pictures  of  the  ancient 
magnificence  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  presented  in  the 
richly  coloured  pages  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  have 


THE    RUIN   OF   NINEVEH  AND    BABYLON.  3 

always  been  deeply  impressed  by  the  contrast  between 
those  departed  glories  and  the  present  loneliness  of  the 
spots  on  which  these  cities  formerly  stood.  Before 
Sherley,  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  had 
been  almost  unknown  to  Europeans  ;  Western  scholars 
had  to  rely  for  their  information  on  the  works  of  ancient 
authors,  and  on  the  reports  of  one  or  two  adventurous 
pilgrims.  But  a  new  era  was  now  beginning;  the 
Portuguese  were  no  longer  to  have  the  monopoly  of 
Eastern  trade  ;  other  nations  were  asserting  their  right 
to  navigate  the  Indian  Ocean;  and  in  A.D.  1595  the 
Dutch  had  founded  their  East  India  Company :  an 
example  which  the  English  were  not  slow  to  follow. 
The  new  outlet  for  commercial  activity  drew  a  large 
number  of  traders  to  Asiatic  Turkey,  on  their  road  to 
more  distant  regions,  and  some  of  these  were  sufficiently 
intelligent  to  make  occasional  notes  on  the  antiquities 
of  the  countries  which  they  visited.  Moreover,  a  new 
intercourse  was  now  established  between  the  Persian 
Court  and  the  European  Powers,  and  Shah  Abbas 
received  at  Ispahan  the  visits  of  many  envoys  from  the 
West.  Finally,  now  that  the  road  was  opened,  the 
religious  orders  of  Christendom  were  able  to  inaugurate 
permanent  missions  in  Mahometan  countries,  which  had 
hitherto,  by  their  hostility,  made  the  enterprise  im- 
possible. 

An  account  of  the  decipherment  of  the  Assyrian  and 

Babylonian  inscriptions  naturally  begins  with  a  history 

of  the  sites  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon.     It  was  through 

the  visits  of  travellers  to  these  famous  spots  that  the 

B  2 


4  NEW  LIGHT   ON   THE   SWL1S. 

inscriptions  were  first  discovered ;  and  it  was  through 
the  overwhelming  interest  felt  by  historians  and  theo- 
logians in  all  the  remains  of  those  ancient  centres  of 
civilisation,  whence  the  oppressors  of  the  Israel  itish  nation 
had  come,  that  every  effort  was  directed  towards  the 
interpretation  of  these  inscriptions ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  previous  knowledge  which  scholars  possessed 
of  the  history  of  these  cities  formed  an  important  aid 
towards  the  interpretation  of  all  written  monuments  pro- 
ceeding from  the  ruins.  Let  us  see,  then,  what  had  been 
the  fate  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon  when  they  ceased  to 
be  the  capitals  of  empires. 

We  are  more  than  once  assured  by  ancient  writers  that 
the  city  of  Nineveh  was  entirely  demolished  at  the  time 
of  her  capture  :  that  is  to  say,  about  B.C.  606.  The 
Medes,  under  their  king,  Cyaxares,  and  the  Chaldeans, 
under  Nebuchadnezzar,  whose  father,  Nabopolassar,  was 
then  sitting  on  the  throne  of  Babylon,  had  united  their 
forces,  and  engaged  in  a  siege  that  lasted,  some  say, 
seventeen  years.  The  warlike  and  powerful  monarch 
Ashur-bani-pal,  the  hero  of  so  many  wars  and  hunting 
expeditious,  called  Sardanapalus  by  the  Greeks,  had,  in 
B.C.  626,  been  succeeded  by  his  son,  Ashur-itil-ili,  whose 
name  is  known  to  us  from  inscriptions  on  bricks  which 
he  had  made  for  the  construction  of  a  temple  at  Calah, 
from  contracts,  and  from  a  letter  which  alludes  to  a  lady 
of  his  harem.  This  prince  had  in  his  turn  been  fol- 
lowed by  Sin-shar-ishkun,  called  Saracus  in  the  Greek 
history  of  Berosus,  but  often  confused  with  his  famous 
predecessor,  Sardanapalus,  from  whom  he  differed 


THE    RUIN    OF   NINEVEH   AND    UABYLON.  5 

widely  in  character.  Saracus  became  a  bye-word  among 
the  nations,  on  account  of  his  effeminate  disposition  ; 
entirely  abstaining  from  war  and  tbe  chase,  the  proper 
occupations  of  his  station,  he  shut  himself  up  in  his 


SARIUNAPALUS   IN    HIS    CHARIOT. 


harem,  and  joined  with  his  wives  in  the  feminine 
employment  of  spinning  wool.  To  complete  his  female 
character,  he  is  said  to  have  painted  his  face  with  white 
lead  and  other  cosmetics.  Near  Tarsus,  in  Cilicia,  there 
was  a  bas-relief,  which  remained  there  till  the  time 
of  Alexander,  representing  an  Assyrian  king,  probably 


6  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Sennacherib,  the  conqueror  of  that  country ;  it  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  the  monuments  so  frequently  found,  in 
which  the  monarch  stands  erect,  with  one  hand  raised 
in  an  attitude  of  command,  and  an  inscription  relates 
the  exploits  of  his  reign.  This  was  explained  by  the 
Greek  ciceroni  as  the  effigy  of  the  last  King  of  Assyria 
in  the  act  of  expressing  his  views  on  the  value  of 

life :- 

"  Stranger,  go  thy  way,  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry ;  for  the  rest  of 
human  life  is  not  worth  a  snap  of  the  fingers  ! " 

Such  was  the  reputation  of  the  last  successor  of 
Sargon  and  Shalmaneser,  the  final  ruler  of  the  oldest 
empire  of  the  world.  During  the  long  siege  he  had  sat 
confidently  in  his  palace,  relying  on  the  strength  of  the 
ramparts,  and,  it  is  said,  on  a  prophecy,  handed  down 
from  his  ancestors,  which  ran  : — 

"  None  shall  take  Nineveh  by  force  until  the  river  itself  declares 
war  upon  the  city." 

But  the  time  was  come  for  this  prediction,  which 
probably  embodied  former  experiences  of  the  destructive 
power  of  floods,  to  be  fulfilled ;  the  Tigris,  or  the 
Khosr,  rose  to  an  unusual  height  above  the  stone  base- 
ment of  the  walls,  and  broke  down  part  of  the  mud 
rampart  faced  with  burnt  brick  that  was  erected  upon 
it,  so  that  the  Medes  and  Babylonians  were  able  to 
enter  through  the  breach.  In  the  words  of  the  prophet 
Nahum — 

"  The  gates  of  the  rivers  shall  be  opened,  and  the  palace  shall  be 
dissolved." 


THE    RUIN    OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  7 

Saracus,  in  despair,  collected  his  wives  and  much 
of  his  treasure  in  one  of  the  great  courtyards  of  his 
house,  set  fire  to  the  whole,  and  perished  in  the 
conflagration.  The  gold  and  silver  that  could  be  saved 
from  the  fire  was  seized  and  sent  away  to  Ecbatana,  the 
capital  of  Media;  *  so  Nahum  exclaims  : — 

"  Take  ye  the  spoil  of  silver,  take  the  spoil  of  gold  :  for  there  is 
none  end  of  the  store  and  glory  out  of  all  the  pleasant  furniture." 

The  conquerors  now  had  their  revenge  for  the  long 
resistance  made  by  the  ill-fated  capital ;  they  rased  the 
whole  city  to  the  ground,  and  dispersed  the  inhabitants 
among  the  neighbouring  towns. f  Zephaniah  poetically 
describes  the  desolation  which  now  reigned  on  the  scene 
of  so  much  vanished  splendour : — 

"  He  will  stretch  out  his  hand  against  the  north,  and  destroy 
Assyria  ;  and  will  make  Nineveh  a  desolation,  and  dry  like  a  wilder- 
ness. 

"  And  flocks  shall  lie  down  in  the  midst  of  her,  all  the  beasts  of 
the  nations :  both  the  cormorant  and  the  bittern  shall  lodge  in  the 
upper  lintels  of  it ;  their  voice  shall  sing  in  the  windows  ;  desolation 
shall  be  in  the  thresholds  :  for  he  shall  uncover  the  cedar  work. 

"This  is  the  rejoicing  city  that  dwelt  carelessly,  that  said  in 
her  heart,  I  am,  and  there  is  none  beside  me :  how  is  she  become  a 
desolation,  a  place  for  beasts  to  lie  down  in  !  every  one  that  passeth 
by  her  shall  hiss,  and  wag  his  hand."| 

The  rivers  of  Mesopotamia,  swollen  every  spring  and 
autumn  by  the  melted  snows  of  the  Armenian  moun- 
tains, and  by  the  rains,  are  subject  to  annual  overflows. 

*  Diodorus  Siculus,  ii.  28. 

f  Diodorus  Siculus,  ii.  28  ;  Straho,  rri.  i. 

I  Zeph.  ii.  13-15. 


8  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  ancient  monarchs,  by  a  system  of  canalization, 
averted  the  dangers  arising  from  this  phenomenon,  and 
turned  the  excess  of  waters  to  good  account  in  fertilizing 
the  dry  lands  at  a  distance  from  the  stream  ;  so  that  it 
was  an  exceptional  event,  perhaps  caused  by  the  stop- 
ping up  of  the  canals,  which  led  to  the  downfall  of  the 
ramparts  of  Nineveh.  But  when  the  system  of  canals 
fell  into  disorder,  the  districts  near  the  rivers  would  be 
periodically  flooded ;  and  at  the  present  day  the  Khosr, 
a  branch  of  the  Tigris  which  flowed  under  the  walls  of 
Nineveh,  sometimes  turns  the  plain  into  a  swamp.*  In 
this  way  we  must  explain  the  almost  total  disappearance 
of  the  vast  city;  the  mud  houses,  dissolved  by  the 
waters,  soon  return  as  earth  to  earth.  Only  the  walls, 
with  their  brick  facing  and  their  stone  basement,  can 
still  in  part  be  traced ;  and  the  gigantic  palaces,  raised 
on  immense  platforms,  and  constructed  of  the  finest 
bricks,  were  not  easily  to  be  destroyed.  They  were 
partly  burnt  by  the  king  himself,  and  partly,  no  doubt, 
thrown  down  by  the  battering-ram,  so  constantly  used 
in  the  sieges  of  that  period,  until  they  formed  immense 
heaps  of  ruined  brick-work.  Then  they  were  buried 
under  the  decomposing  material  of  the  massive  clay 
vaultings  with  which  the  chambers  were  roofed,  and  of 
the  unbaked  bricks  which  were  mixed  with  the  better 
material.  In  this  way  they  came  to  form  the  huge 
mounds  or  artificial  hills  which  Amyntas  f  described 
in  his  geographical  work,  and  which  the  modern 

*  F.  Jones  :  "  Topography  of  Nineveh,"  p.  22. 
f  See  Atheuaeus,  xii.  39. 


THE    RUIN   OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  9 

traveller  still  sees  oil  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Tigris, 
opposite  Mosul. 

It  is  to  these  circumstances  that  we  owe  the  preser- 
vation of  the  sculptures  and  inscribed  tablets  which,  un- 
seen und  untouched  from  the  downfall  of  Assyria  to  the 
present  time,  have  allowed  us  in  these  latter  days  to 


SIEGE    OF    A    TOWN    BY    THE    ASSYRIANS. 

(Bos-rt lief  from  Nineveh). 


study  the  history  of  the  ancient  empire.  The  mounds 
which  cover  the  palaces  of  the  Assyrian  kings  now 
form  three  heaps  of  ruins  overgrown  with  grass,  which 
break  the  outline  of  the  city  walls.  Kouyunjik,  or  the 
"  Citadel  of  Nineveh,"  as  it  is  often  called,  the  largest  of 
the  mounds,  covers  a  space  of  one  hundred  acres,  and 
forms  a  mass  of  fourteen  millions  and  a  half  of  tons  of 
earth  and  brick-work ;  the'  second  in  size,  Nebi  Yunus, 


10  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

encumbers  forty  acres  with  its  six  millions  of  tons 
of  similar  material.  It  has  been  computed  that  a 
thousand  men  constantly  at  work  would  require  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  years  to  excavate  the  first,  and  fifty- 
four  to  dig  out  the  second  of  the  two  hills.  The  recent 
excavations  and  tunnelling*  at  Kouyunjik,  fruitful  as 
they  have  been  in  results,  have  made  little  impression 
on  the  vast  mass  of  ruin,  and  only  prove  how  much 
might  be  gained  by  a  complete  clearance. 

Xenophon,  with  his  ten  thousand  Greeks,  retreated 
along  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  about  two  hundred 
years  after  the  triumph  of  the  Medes  and  their  allies, 
and  if,  in  his  account  of  the  country,  he  alludes  to 
Nineveh  at  all,  it  is  as  Mespila,  a  deserted  city,  around 
which  the  remains  of  a  wall  of  brick  on  a  basement 
of  limestone  could  still  be  traced.  But  the  inhabitants 
of  the  neighbourhood  never  forgot  the  name  of  the 
great  metropolis  ;  and  very  soon  a  new  Nineveh  arose 
on  the  ancient  site.  This  probably  took  place  before  the 
time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  for  when  Darius  Codo- 
manus  started  with  his  army  to  meet  the  conqueror  on 
the  march  which  ended  in  the  fatal  field  of  Arbela,  he  is 
described  as  making  his  way  towards  Nineveh.*  The 
new  town  or  fort  must  have  been  small  and  unim- 
portant compared  with  its  predecessor ;  but  modern 
geographers,  at  any  rate,  should  be  grateful  for  its 
erection,  as  it  has  preserved  the  ancient  name  and  made 
an  exact  identification  possible.  The  generals  of  the 
Emperor  Claudius,  in  their  Parthian  campaign  of 
*  Piodorus  Siculus,  xvii.  53, 


THE    RUIN   OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  11 

A.D.  49,  captured  the  "town  of  Ninus."  Apollonius  of 
Tyana,  who  lived  in  the  first  century  of  our  era,  is  said 
to  have  visited  Nineveh  in  the  course  of  his  journey 
through  the  Parthian  dominions;  but  as  his  life,  written 
by  Philostratus  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century, 
is  an  historical  romance,  it  is  dangerous  to  quote  it  as 
evidence  of  anything  except  the  belief  of  the  author 
that  such  a  town  existed  at  the  time.  In  the  wars 
of  Trajan  (A.D.  116)  we  find  Nineveh  the  chief  town  of 
a  province  ;  and  though  Lucian,  who  was  himself  born 
on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  in  the  second  century 
after  Christ,  says  that  Nineveh,  so  powerful  and  famous 
in  her  time,  had  now  so  completely  disappeared  that  it 
was  almost  impossible  to  tell  where  she  had  stood,  he 
is  not,  of  course,  speaking  of  the  comparatively  unim- 
portant successor  of  the  Assyrian  capital.  The  state- 
ment is  made  in  a  dialogue  between  Charon  and 
Hermes,  in  which  the  former,  who  has  left  his  post 
in  the  infernal  regions  of  ferryman  of  the  dead,  in 
order  to  pay  a  short  visit  to  this  upper  world,  which  he 
is  curious  to  inspect,  asks  Hermes,  the  swift-footed 
messenger  of  the  gods,  to  act  as  his  guide  during  a 
rapid  tour  around  the  chief  sights. 

CHARON  :  "  Shew  me  the  famous  cities,  of  which  we  hear  so 
much  down  below  :  the  Nineveh  of  Sardanapalus,  and  Babylon,  and 
Mycenae,  and  Cleonre,  and  especially  Troy.  I  remember  to  have 
ferried  over  the  Styx  so  many  who  came  from  this  last  place,  that  I 
could  not  haul  my  boat  upon  the  bank,  or  have  it  thoroughly  dried, 
for  ten  whole  years." 

HERMES  :  "  Nineveh,  O  Ferryman,  perished  long  ago,  and  there 
is  no  trace  of  her  remaining ;  nor  would  you  be  able  to  tell  where 


12  NEW   LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

she  stood.  Babylon  is  yonder  city  with  the  tair  towers  and  the 
immense  circuit  of  wall,  but  will  soon  have  to  be  sought  for  like 
Nineveh."  * 

In  the  Persian  campaign  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  in 
A. D.  303,  Nineveh  appears  as  if  she  were  still  the 
principal  town  of  her  province.  Two  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  years  later,  the  name  of  the  great  capital  of 
Sennacherib  and  Sardanapalus  again  became  famous, 
because  the  plain  in  which  she  stood  was  the  scene  of 
the  glorious  victory  of  the  Emperor  Heraclius  over  the 
Persian  monarch,  Chosroes,  in  A.D.  627.  The  battle  of 
Nineveh  was  the  last  triumph  of  the  Roman  Empire  on 
the  banks  of  the  Tigris  ;  a  few  years  later,  Assyria  was 
included  in  the  rapidly  growing  dominions  of  the  Arab 
tribes,  who  had  been  driven  by  the  fervour  of  their  new 
faith  to  leave  their  native  deserts  and  conquer  the  world. 

But,  meanwhile,  the  existence  and  comparative  im- 
portance of  the  second  Nineveh  is  proved  by  the  choice 
of  her  as  the  see  of  a  Christian  bishop,  subject  to  the 
Metropolitan  of  Adiabene.  Isaac,  Bishop  of  Nineveh, 
was  the  author  of  various  theological  works  in  the 
sixth  century ;  and  many  others  who  held  this  see 
are  known  in  the  annals  of  the  Syrian  Church  down 
to  the  ninth  century,  when  the  bishopric  seems  to  have 
been  abolished.  There  were  several  monasteries  in  this 
district  during  the  Middle  Ages,  especially  those  of 
the  Prophet  Jonah,  of  Saint  Matthew,  and  of  Rabban 
Hormuzd.  At  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  we  hear 
of  a  Syrian  primate,  John  of  Sarug,  who,  in  the  course 

*  Luciau,  Cbaron,  23, 


THE   RUIN    OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  13 

of  a  visit  to  Nineveh,  passed  the  night  on  the  roof 
of  the  great  church  called  Beth  Cudida,  fell  off  it  in  his 
sleep,  and  was  killed.  The  next  century  is  distinguished 
in  the  annals  of  the  Oriental  Churches  and  of  Syriac 
literature  by  the  life  and  works  of  Bar-Hebra3us,  the 
Primate  of  the  East,  who,  in  the  course  of  his  pastoral 
journeys,  frequently  visited  Nineveh  and  the  monasteries 
in  its  neighbourhood.  Soon  after  his  time  the  town 
sank  into  the  position  of  a  small  village,  through  the 
ravages  of  the  Kurds  and  the  inroad  of  the  Tartars,  who 
destroyed  her  neighbour,  Mosul,  burnt  the  monasteries, 
and  slew  the  Christian  inhabitants. 

Besides  the  testimonies  to  the  existence  of  Nineveh 
which  come  to  us  from  the  Christians  of  the  East, 
we  must  not  forget  those  of  the  Mahometans.  The 
fort  of  Ninawi,  opposite  Mosul,  is  spoken  of  in  the 
account  of  the  first  campaigns  of  the  Arabs  by  Beladhuri. 
The  geographers  all  speak  of  the  ancient  capital  of 
Assyria  as  having  existed  on  this  spot ;  among  them, 
Abtilfeda  is  pre-eminent,  because  his  works  have  long 
been  widely  known  in  Europe,  and  have  led  to  the 
identification  of  many  Eastern  sites.  The  city  of  Mosul, 
on  the  western  bank  of  the  Tigris,  however,  had  risen, 
after  the  Arab  conquest,  to  such  size  and  prosperity 
that  it  had  superseded  its  ancient  neighbour,  and  was 
itself  sometimes  mistaken  for  Nineveh.  A  still  more 
common  error,  as  we  shall  see  later  in  the  chapter,  was 
that  which  placed  Nineveh,  in  the  opinion  of  some  of 
the  natives,  at  Eski-Mosul,  many  miles  higher  up  the 
river. 


14  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Let  us  now  leave  the  capital  of  Assyria,  and  see 
what  had  been  the  fate  of  Babylon  since  the  southern 
city  had  ceased,  in  her  turn,  to  be  the  metropolis  of  an 
empire.  Babylon  did  not  meet  with  the  same  treat- 
ment that  she  had  dealt  to  her  northern  rival.  Instead 
of  being  rased  to  the  ground,  she  found  herself  almost 
intact,  and  still  the  chief  town  of  a  province.  We 
do  not  know,  indeed,  what  were  the  immediate  causes 
which  led  to  the  entry  of  Cyrus  into  Babylon ;  possibly, 
if  we  may  rely  upon  certain  indications  in  two  obscure 
documents  written  on  clay  in  the  cuneiform  character, 
the  Persian  was  invited  by  the  discontented  inhabitants 
to  release  them  from  their  native  sovereign,  Nabonidus, 
who  was  not  of  royal  descent,  but  had  been  raised  to  the 
throne  by  a  conspiracy. 

A  passage  on  a  clay  cylinder  is  thus  translated  : — 

"  As  a  friend  and  helper  did  Cyrus  enter  into  Babylon  ;  his  far- 
spreading  armies,  which,  like  the  waters  of  the  river,  cannot  be 
numbered,  extended  themselves  at  his  side.  Without  resistance  or 
fighting  did  the  god  Merodach  bring  him  into  Babylon,  his  city.  He 
spared  the  city  ;  Merodach  delivered  Nabonidus  into  his  hand. 
The  inhabitants  of  Babylon,  the  great  men  and  the  chief  priests 
bowed  down  before  him  ;  they  kissed  his  feet ;  they  rejoiced  that  he 
had  gained  the  kingdom." 

By  whatever  means  the  Persians  were  led  to  take 
possession  of  Babylon,  it  is  certain  that  after  the  defeat 
of  Nabonidus  and  the  death  of  his  son,  Belshazzar,  who 
was  acting  as  regent,  very  little  injury  was  done  to  the 
city.  The  walls  were,  perhaps,  lowered ;  but  it  was  the 
policy  of  Cyrus  to  conciliate  the  inhabitants  by  leaving 
their  houses  and  their  temples  untouched ;  by  professing 


THE    RUIN    OF  NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  15 

himself  the  fervent  worshipper  of  the  Babylonian  gods ; 
and  by  restoring1  to  their  temples  the  images  which  the 
late  king — for  what  reason  we  know  not — had  taken 
away. 

After  the  death  of  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus, 
Darius,  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  a  member  of  a  junior 
branch  of  the  royal  house,  was  set  upon  the  throne  by  a 
conspiracy.  A  general  rebellion  took  place  in  various 
quarters  of  the  empire ;  the  false  Smerdis  had  been  slain 
in  Persia  itself;  but  at  Babylon,  an  impostor,  calling 
himself  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  son  of  Nabonidus,  headed 
the  insurrection  of  his  countrymen.  Darius,  however, 
was  victorious  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  as  he  was 
at  Susa  and  in  Media ;  the  great  city  was  taken  after  a 
long  siege,  and  severely  punished  for  her  attempt  to 
free  herself  from  the  foreign  yoke.  The  ruin  of 
Babylon,  in  fact,  may  be  said  to  date  from  the  siege  of 
Darius.  He  destroyed  part  of  the  walls — perhaps  the 
whole  of  the  outer  wall  which  Nebuchadnezzar  had 
built — he  carried  off  the  gates,  and  he  put  to  death 
three  thousand  of  the  chief  men.  It  is  true  that 
Babylon  still  remained  one  of  the  chief  towns  of  the 
empire,  and  shared  with  Persepolis,  Ecbatana.  and  Susa 
the  honour  of  entertaining  the  Persian  Court  during  a 
part  of  the  year  ;  but  the  days  of  her  good  fortune  were 
over,  and  the  successor  of  Darius  carried  on  the  work  of 
demolition  begun  by  his  father.  Xerxes,  forgetting  the 
policy  of  conciliation  which  had  contributed  so  much  to 
the  success  of  Cyrus,  and  regardless  of  the  religious 
feelings  of  his  Chaldsean  subjects,  destroyed  many,  if 


16  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

not  all,  of  the  temples  in  the  city,  and  even  demolished 
the  great  Temple  of  Bel  itself  :  that  immense  structure 
which  it  had  been  the  pride  of  the  native  monarchs  to 
maintain.  It  must  be  put  down  to  his  credit,  indeed, 
that  he  did  not  sequestrate  the  revenues  settled  upon 
this  sanctuary  by  the  ancient  sovereigns.  The  Chaldaean 
priests  continued  to  enjoy  the  rich  income  of  their 
predecessors,  although  it  could  no  longer  be  put  to 
its  proper  use  of  supporting  the  worship  of  the  god  and 
keeping  his  shrine  in  repair.  The  Temple  of  Bel  was 
henceforward  nothing  more  than  a  vast  heap  of  ruins, 
and  soon  became  the  shapeless  mound  of  bricks  and 
earth  which,  under  the  name  of  Babil  or  of  Mujelibah, 
the  Overthrown,  remains  the  wonder  of  travellers  to  the 
present  day. 

We  have  now  come  to  the  time  when  Herodotus, 
if  we  are  to  believe  his  own  words,  visited  Babylon  ; 
but  the  description  of  the  Greek  historian  would 
seem  rather  to  apply  to  the  city  as  it  had  been  in 
the  days  of  its  greatness  than  as  he  actually  saw  it.  He 
describes  the  walls  as  if  they  were  still  standing ; 
though,  later  in  his  work,  he  himself  confesses  that 
Darius  had  demolished  them  and  carried  off  their  gates. 
From  his  account  of  the  great  temple,  too,  we  should 
suppose  that  it  was  still  perfect,  and  its  worship  was 
still  carried  on;  but  yet  he  admits  that  Xerxes  had 
carried  off  the  golden  statue  of  the  god  which  stood 
in  the  outer  enclosure,  and  had  slain  the  priest  who 
attempted  to  defend  it.  Perhaps  Professor  Sayce  is 
right,  and  Herodotus  had  not  himself  visited  the  banks 


THE    RUIN   OF  NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  17 

of  the  Euphrates  ;  or  his  account  of  the  temple  must  be 
taken  as  applying  to  the  second  great  sanctuary  at 
Borsippa,  according  to  the  theory  of  M.  Oppert. 

As  we  have  seen,  however,  the  Persian  kings  still 
looked  upon  the  city,  which  they  had  done  so  much 
to  injure,  as  their  spring  head-quarters  ;  it  was  still  the 
capital  of  a  territory  from  which  they  derived  a  third  of 
their  whole  revenue.  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  was  at  Baby- 
lon when  his  brother  Cyrus  advanced  against  him  with 
his  army  of  Asiatic  rebels  and  Greek  mercenaries ;  and 
it  was  thither  that  this  monarch  retired,  after  his 
victory  of  Cunaxa,  to  celebrate  his  triumph,  and  to 
reward  the  general,  Tissaphernes,  with  the  hand  of  his 
daughter.  It  was  at  Babylon  that  Artaxerxes  Ochus 
assembled  his  troops  for  his  war  against  the  Phrenicians, 
the  Cypriotes,  and  the  Egyptians,  and  thither  that  he 
returned  with  his  army  and  his  spoils.  At  Babylon, 
again,  Darius  Codomannus,  the  last  of  his  line,  col- 
lected his  forces  to  repel  the  advance  of  Alexander  the 
Great ;  and  to  Bab}rlon  he  returned  after  his  defeat 
at  Issus.  Finally,  it  was  from  Babylon  that  this  ill- 
fated  monarch  started  on  his  march  through  Mesopo- 
tamia, which  ended  in  the  decisive  battle  of  Arbela  and 
the  fall  of  the  Persian  dynasty.  The  Babylonians  were 
always  ready  for  a  change  of  government,  and  they 
welcomed  Alexander,  after  the  overthrow  of  Darius, 
as  formerly  they  had  welcomed  Cyrus. 

"  The  greater  part  of  the  citizens  stood  on  the  walls,  eager  to  see 
the  new  sovereign ;  many  went  out  to  meet  him.  Bagophanes,  the 
keeper  of  the  citadel  and  of  the  royal  treasury,  was  the  first  to  go 

C 


18  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

forth  ;  he  had  caused  the  road  to  be  strewn  with  flowers  and  gar- 
lands, and  had  arranged  a  number  of  silver  altars  at  intervals  on 
each  side  of  the  way  ;  and  upon  these  incense  and  all  other  scented 
gums  were  burning.  As  presents,  he  took  out  with  him  herds  of 
sheep  and  horses,  besides  lions  and  leopards,  which  were  carried 
in  their  cages.  Then  came  the  Magi,  chanting  ancient  hymns  to 
their  peculiar  melodies  ;  next  went  the  ChahUean  priests  and  the 
Babylonian  singers  and  musicians,  with  their  native  harps.  Last 
rode  the  Babylonian  horsemen,  who,  with  their  gorgeous  robes  and 
the  rich  trappings  of  their  steeds,  made  a  display  of  effeminate 
luxury  rather  than  of  military  splendour."  * 

If  Alexander,  now  master  of  Asia,  had  lived  to  carry 
out  his  plans,  Babylon  would  again  have  become  the 
capital  of  an  empire.  On  his  return  from  India,  the 
Macedonian  conqueror  was  warned  by  the  Babylonian 
priests  that  lie  must  not  enter  their  city,  for  an  oracle  of 
the  god  Bel  had  announced  that  he  would  incur  great 
danger  by  doing  so. 

"But  there  was  something  which  seemed  suspicious  to  Alexander 
in  the  conduct  of  the  Chalda-an  priests,  and  made  him  think  that  it 
was  not  so  much  on  account  of  an  oracle  as  for  their  own  profit  that 
they  wished  to  prevent  him  from  entering.  For  the  Temple  of  Bel,  stand- 
ing in  the  midst  of  Babylon,  was  the  greatest  of  all  their  sanctuaries, 
and  was  built  of  baked  bricks  cemented  with  bitumen.  This  temple,  as 
well  as  the  others,  had  been  demolished  by  Xerxes  when  he  i-eturned 
from  Greece  ;  but  Alexander  had  it  in  his  mind  to  rebuild  it,  either 
on  the  old  foundations  or,  as  some  say,  on  a  larger  scale  than  before ; 
and  for  this  reason  [when  he  first  took  possession  of  the  city]  he 
ordered  the  natives  to  clear  away  the  mass  of  ruins;  but  while 
he  was  absent,  those  to  whom  the  work  had  been  entrusted  carried 
it  on  without  energy,  so  that  when  he  returned  he  intended  to  set  his 
whole  army  to  work  upon  the  task.  Now,  the  god  Bel  possessed 
much  land,  with  which  he  had  been  endowed  by  the  Assyrian  kings, 
and  much  gold,  which  allowed  the  temple  to  be  kept  in  repair  and 

*  Quiutus  Curtius,  v.  7. 


THE   RUIN   OF  NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  19 

sacrifices  to  be  offered  to  the  god  ;  but  since  the  destruction  of  the 
temple,  the  Chaldaean  priests  had  enjoyed  the  revenues  of  the  god, 
because  there  was  no  other  object  upon  which  the  balance  of  money 
could  be  expended.  For  this  reason  Alexander  suspected  that  they 
did  not  wish  him  to  enter  the  city,  because  the  temple  would,  in  that 
case,  soon  be  restored,  and  they  would  lose  the  advantage  of  its 
revenues."  * 

The  fears  of  the  crafty  priests  were  not  realised  ;  a 
few  days  later,  and  the  conqueror  had  expired.  The 
great  temple,  therefore,  must  soon  have  become  a  mere 
mound,  sucK  as  that  which  travellers  have  long  re- 
marked on  the  east  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  a  little 
to  the  north-east  of  the  modern  Ilillah.  This  artificial 
hill,  which  has  specially  retained  the  name  of  Babil, 
or  Babylon,  .has  for  many  years  been  identified  as 
the  remains  of  the  immense  structure  which  Alexander 
wished  to  restore,  the  sanctuary  named  Bit-Saggil  by  the 
ancient  Babylonians,  which,  with  the  other  great  temple 
of  Bit-Zida,  at  Borsippa,  it  had  been  the  pride  of  the 
native  monarchs  to  maintain  and  keep  in.  repair.  The 
death  of  Alexander  was  followed  by  a  deadly  struggle 
among  his  generals,  who,  under  the  nominal  supremacy 
of  his  imbecile  half-brother,  or  his  infant  son,  made  a 
partition  of  his  empire.  Babylonia  fell  to  the  share  of 
Seleucus,  who  for  some  years  had  to  carry  on  wars  with 
Antigonus  and  his  allies,  and  for  a  time  fled  to  Egypt, 
and  left  the  city  in  the  possession  of  his  rival.  The 
city  of  Babylon  suffered  severely  during  this  period ; 
and  when  Demetrius,  the  son  of  Antigonus,  advanced  to 
lay  siege  to  the  place,  he  found  the  whole  space  within 

*  Arrian,  Anab.,  vii.  16. 

c  2 


20  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

the  walls  deserted,  except  the  citadel.  When  Seleucus, 
in  B.C.  312,  was  recognised  as  undisputed  master  of 
Babylonia  and  Syria,  he  determined  to  strengthen  his 
position  by  abolishing  the  memory  of  former  dynasties, 
and  he  dealt  a  deadly  blow  to  the  ancient  metropolis 
by  founding  on  the  Tigris  a  new  city,  which  he  named 
Seleucia,  after  himself,  and  to  which  he  induced  the 
inhabitants  of  Babylon  to  migrate,  with  the  object 
of  exhausting  the  former  capital.  The  Macedonian 
king,  however,  allowed  part  of  the  population  to  remain 
in  their  ancient  seat,  and  especially  gave  permission  to 
the  priests  to  continue  to  dwell  near  their  ruined 
temples.  But  though  Babylon  was  thus  drained  of  its 
inhabitants,  and  fell  from  its  former  greatness,  the  pro- 
vince continued  to  be  called  Babylonia,  and  the  people 
Babylonians ;  thus  we  hear  of  a  Greek  philosopher, 
Diogenes  the  Babylonian,  who  lived  at  Seleucia.  The 
new  capital  itself,  too — so  vivid  was  the  memory  of  the 
ancient  name — sometimes  received  the  appellation  of 
Babylon ;  and  in  later  times,  when  the  Parthians  made 
Ctesiphon  their  chief  town,  this  was  often  in  its  turn 
named  Babylon,  at  least  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans  ; 
and  many  centuries  after,  when  the  Mahometans  de- 
stroyed Ctesiphon  and  founded  Bagdad,  this  latest 
metropolis  of  Mesopotamia  was  constantly  spoken  of  in 
the  West  under  the  name  of  the  unforgotten  city  of 
Nebuchadnezzar.  Under  the  Roman  Empire,  the  name 
of  Babylon  was  generally  well  known ;  not  only  to 
scholars  who  had  read  of  the  vast  and  wealthy  city,  the 
home  of  the  earliest  astronomers,  whither  some  of  the 


THE   RUIN   OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  1>1 

greatest  philosophers  had  resorted  for  study,  which 
alone  exhibited  in  its  walls  and  hanging-gardens  two 
out  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world ;  but  to  men  of  all 
sorts  and  conditions.  This  was  for  two  reasons  :  firstly, 
because  all  parts  of  the  empire  were  invaded  by  a  host 
of  Chaldsean  astrologers,  fortune-tellers,  and  conjurers, 
able  to  foretell  the  hour  of  a  man's  death  or  to  charm 
away  his  diseases ;  secondly,  because  there  was  a  great 
demand  for  Babylonian  embroidered  stuffs,  which  were 
employed  for  hangings  and  couch  coverings.  The  Em- 
peror Nero  gave  £3,360  for  a  set  of  the  latter.  The 
embroideries  of  Babylonia  were  only  rivalled  by  the 
damasks  of  Egypt ;  hence  Martial  wrote  the  following 
epigram  to  accompany  a  present  of  some  bedchamber 
hangings  woven  with  designs  in  many-coloured  threads  : 

"  This  is  a  gift  which  comes  to  you  from  the  land  of  Memphis  ; 
now  you  see  the  needle  of  the  Babylonian  embroiderer  outdone  by 
the  comb  of  the  weaver  on  the  Nile."  * 

After  the  Macedonian  conquest  of  Babylonia,  the 
native  embroiderers,  under  the  influence  of  the  invaders, 
had  sometimes  introduced  Greek  subjects  into  their 
designs. 

"  The  chamber  of  Habrocomes  and  Anthia  was  thus  arranged  : 
the  golden  bed  was  overlaid  with  scarlet  coverlets,  and  above  the  bed 
was  an  embroidered  Babylonian  canopy.  On  one  side  of  the  latter 
were  depicted  Loves  in  attendance  upon  Aphrodite,  some  riding 
upon  sparrows,  some  weaving  garlands,  some  bringing  flowers.  On 
the  other  side  was  Ares,  unarmed  and  decked  for  his  wedding  with 
Aphrodite ;  he  was  crowned  with  roses,  and  wearing  a  tunic ;  Eros 
was  leading  him,  holding  in  his  hand  a  burning  torch."  f 

*  Martial,  xiv.  150.  f  Xeuophou,  Ephesiaca,  i, 


22  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Meanwhile,  although  Seleucia  was  usurping  her 
place,  and  sometimes  her  name,  the  original  Babylon 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  still  partly  inhabited ;  and 
Antiochus  Soter  (B.C.  281-202),  the  son  and  successor 
of  Seleucus,  made  some  pretence  of  restoring  the  great 
temple  of  the  city  and  that  of  its  suburb,  Borsippa. 
Perhaps  he  actually  made  some  repairs  in  the  latter, 
which  was  probably  less  injured  than  the  other  shrine 
which  Alexander  had  wished  to  re-build  ;  in  any  case,  a 
clay  cylinder  of  his  reign  has  been  found  among  the 
ruins  at  Birs  Nimroud,  in  which  he  speaks  of  causing 
bricks  to  be  made  and  of  laying  the  foundations.  The 
inscription  ends  thus  : — 

"  May  I  conquer  the  lands  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the 
:sun  ;  may  I  bring  their  tribute  for  the  completion  of  Bit-Saggil  and 
Bit-Zida.  O  Nebo,  princely  son,  when  thou  enterest  into  Bit-Zida, 
the  true  temple,  may  a  blessing  for  Antiochus,  the  king  of  many 
countries,  for  Seleucus  the  king,  his  son,  and  for  Stratonice,  his  wife, 
the  queen,  be  in  thy  mouth  !" 

It  was  in  this  reign  that  Berosus,  a  priest  of  Bel, 
probably  attached  to  the  former  of  the  two  ruined 
temples  mentioned  above,  translated  into  Greek,  from 
the  clay  tablets  and  cylinders  inscribed  with  cuneiform 
characters,  a  history  of  Babylon  from  the  earliest  times 
to  his  own  day,  and  this  he  dedicated  to  Antiochus 
Soter.  Unfortunately,  the  work  is  lost,  and  only 
known  to  us  from  the  scanty  quotations  given  by 
Josephus,  Eusebius,  Georgius  Syncellus,  and  other 
writers. 

In  B.C.  240  Babylonia  fell  under  new  masters,  and 


THE    RUIN    OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  23 

the  Macedonian  dynasty  was  forced  to  make  way  for 
the  Parthians.  These  invaders,  under  their  king, 
Arsaces,  continued  to  regard  Seleucia  as  the  capital,  but 
chose  for  the  residence  of  the  Court  and  army  a  small 
suburh  on  the  opposite,  or  eastern,  bank  of  the  Tigris, 
named  Ctesiphon.  That  Babylon  was  still  peopled 
under  the  new  rulers,  we  have  proof  in  the  rebellion  in 
which  she  took  part  about  B.C.  127,  for  which  she  was 
severely  chastised  by  the  Parthian  general,  Himerus, 
who  sold  most  of  the  inhabitants  into  slavery,  burnt 
the  market-place  and  the  temples  that  were  still  stand- 
ing, and  destroyed  all  that  was  left  of  the  principal 
buildings.  Nothing  now  remained  but  a  ruined  ram- 
part, enclosing  a  few  scattered  hamlets.  The  vast  city 
had  almost  disappeared. 

Besides  the  political  causes  of  her  disappearance, 
there  were  also  physical  causes  at  work.  The  district  of 
Babylon  is  even  more  exposed  to  the  dissolving  action 
of  the  floods  than  Nineveh.  The  annual  rising  of  the 
Euphrates  had  been  kept  in  check  under  the  native 
sovereigns  by  an  elaborate  network  of  canals,  but  these 
required  constant  care  to  prevent  them  from  being 
choked  up  by  the  accumulation  of  the  soft  alluvial  soil 
at  their  mouths.  One  of  the  chief  functions  of  the 
ancient  kings  had  been  to  preserve  the  free  circulation 
of  the  waters,  and  thus  to  turn  Babylonia  from  a  marsh 
into  a  fertile  plain  covered  with  prosperous  cities  ;  and 
though  the  Persians  neglected  this  duty,  Alexander  had 
at  once  given  his  attention  to  the  restoration  of  the 
canals,  and  superintended  in  person  the  work  upon  that 


24  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

called  Pallacopas,  or  Pallacottas,*  by  the  Greeks,  often 
mentioned  in  commercial  documents  of  the  Babylonians 
as  the  river  PcdkatJcatum.  Under  the  Parthians  this 
system  of  drainage  was  almost  entirely  forgotten ;  a 
few  of  the  chief  canals,  indeed,  exist  to  the  present  day, 
but  the  annual  floods  soon  began  again  their  work 
of  destruction.  The  mud  houses,  therefore,  of  which 
the  vast  city  was  chiefly  composed,  were  soon  dissolved. 
The  outer  walls,  stripped  of  their  brick  facing,  became 
mere  ramparts  of  earth  or  were  washed  away.  Little 
was  left  except  the  immense  mounds  formed  by  ruined 
temples  and  palaces.  We  have  seen  what  the  Temple  of 
Bit-Saggil  became  after  its  destruction  by  Xerxes  ;  the 
mound  of  Babil,  thought  to  be  identical  with  it,  now 
forms  a  mass  of  crumbling  brick- work  about  two  hun- 
dred yards  long  and  fifty  yards  high.  To  the  south 
of  this  lies  the  Kasr,  or  palace,  a  somewhat  smaller 
ruin,  in  which  walls  of  the  finest  brick -work,  formerly 
faced  with  enamelled  tiles,  are  to  be  found.  South 
of  this,  again,  is  the  mound  of  Tell-Amran,  identified 
by  M.  Oppert  with  the  hanging-gardens  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar. There  are  also  traces  of  the  wall  of  the  citadel, 
enclosing  a  space  of  about  3f  square  miles,  and  there 
are  vestiges  of  the  embankment  along  the  river  side. 
On  the  other  bank  of  the  river,  to  the  south  of  Hillah, 
is  the  ruin  of  Birs  Nimroud,  a  mass  of  broken  brick- 
work more  than  700  yards  in  circumference  at  the 
base,  now  known  to  represent  the  temple  of  Bit- 
Zida,  in  the  suburb  of  Borsippa,  part  of  the  vast 

*  Appian,  De  bellis  civilibus,  ii.  153, 


THE   RUIN   OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON. 


25 


city  which  Nebuchadnezzar  enclosed  with  two  lofty 
walls,  and  which  must  have  been  seven  times  as  large 
as  Paris. 

That  Babylon  must  have  fallen  into  a  state  not  very 
different  from  this  before  the  beginning  of  our  era  there 


EUPHRATES    AND    PLAIN    OF    BABYLON,    UUIN    OF    BIKS   NIMROUD    IN    DISTANCE. 

is  sufficient  evidence.  In  the  reign  of  Augustus,  it 
is  said  of  her  that 

"  The  great  city  has  become  a  great  desert,"  * 

although  there  were  still  some  inhabitants  on  the 
desolate  site.  It  seems  that  the  Jews  especially  clung 
to  the  scene  of  their  captivity ;  a  plague,  in  the  time  of 

*  Strabo,  xvi.  1. 


26  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Caligula,  drove  them  from  the  hamlets  of  Babylon  to 
Seleucia,  but  they  appear  to  have  returned,  and  to  have 
dwelt  on  the  spot  far  into  the  Mahometan  period.  The 
Emperor  Trajan,  the  only  Eoman  general  whose  con- 
quest of  Babylonia  was  more  than  momentary,  after 
capturing  the  Parthian  capitals  of  Seleucia  and  Ctesi- 
phon,  and  mastering  their  whole  territory  down  to  the 
Persian  Gulf,  was  drawn  by  a  sentimental  interest  to 
visit  the  remains  of  Babylon,  the  scene  of  Alexander's 
death  and  of  so  much  departed  magnificence.  The 
imperial  visitor  was  able  to  offer  sacrifice  in  the  house 
(no  doubt  a  wreck)  in  which  the  Macedonian  conqueror, 
the  object  of  his  admiration  and  the  model  of  his 
conduct,  had  breathed  his  last;  but  he  found  nothing 
worthy  of  the  fame  of  Babylon,  only 

"  Mounds,  and  legends,  and  ruins."  * 

After  Trajan,  Babylonia  was  invaded  by  the  Em- 
perors Lucius  Verus  (A.D.  162),  who  took  and  de- 
stroyed Seleucia;  Septimius  Severus  (A.D.  201),  who 
burnt  Ctesiphon  ;  and  Carus  (A.D.  283),  who  captured 
the  latter  city,  now  restored  by  the  new  Sassanian 
dynasty,  which  had  overthrown  the  Parthians  in  A.D. 
227.  But  we  do  not  hear  of  the  ancient  city  of  Babylon 
in  any  of  these  campaigns.  In  A.D.  303  Julian  the 
Apostate  advanced  to  the  walls  of  Ctesiphon,  in  the 
course  of  the  war  which  ended  in  his  death.  By 
this  time  the  Sassanian  kings  of  Persia  had  turned 
the  deserted  citadel  of  Babylon  to  a  new  use,  for  they 

*  Dio  Cassius,  Ixviii.  30. 


THE    RUIN    OF  NINEVEH  AND    BABYLON.  27 

had  restored  the  ramparts  to  a  sufficient  height  to 
prevent  the  egress  of  wild  beasts,  and  had  turned 
the  enclosure  into  a  park,  where  they  enjoyed  their 
favourite  amusement  of  hunting. 

"  As  the  Emperor  Julian  was  marching  forward  through  Babylonia, 
he  passed  other  unimportant  fortresses,  and  came  at  last  to  a  walled 
enclosure,  which  the  natives  pointed  out  as  a  royal  hunting-ground. 
It  was  a  low  rampart,  enclosing  a  wide  space  planted  with  trees 
of  every  sort,  in  which  all  kinds  of  beasts  were  shut  up  ;  they  were 
supplied  with  food  by  keepers,  and  gave  the  king  the  opportunity 
of  hunting  whenever  he  felt  inclined.  When  Julian  saw  this,  he 
caused  a  large  part  of  the  wall  to  be  overthrown,  and  as  the  beasts 
escaped  they  were  shot  down  by  his  soldiers."  * 

Without  pausing  to  comment  on  the  unfair  way  in 
which  the  Roman  Emperor  thus  spoiled  his  enemy's 
sport,  we  proceed  to  remark  that  it  was  a  park  of 
this  sort  that  the  site  of  Babylon  had  become  under 
the  Sassanian  kings :  so  at  least  Saint  Jerome,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  assures  us  : — 

"Herodotus  and  many  others  who.  have  written  histories  in 
Greek  tell  us  that  Babylon  was  a  most  powerful  city,  built  square 
in  the  midst  of  a  plain,  and  measuring  sixty-four  miles  in  circum- 
ference. The  citadel  or  Capitol  of  that  city  is  the  same  as  the  tower 
which  was  built  after  the  Flood,  and  is  said  to  have  reached  the 
height  of  four  miles,  and  to  have  been  built  in  the  form  of  a 
pyramid.  They  tell  of  marble  temples  in  that  city,  of  golden  statues, 
of  streets  glittering  with  gold  and  silver,  and  many  other  things 
which  almost  seem  incredible.  I  have  mentioned  all  these  matters 
that  I  may  show  that  before  the  wrath  of  God  all  power  is  as  dust, 
and  is  compared  to  cinders  and  ashes.  If  it  was  possible  for  us 
to  travel  among  a  barbarous  nation,  and  to  see  the  last  traces  of  this 

*  Zosimus,  iii.  23. 


28  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

city,  we  should  but  behold  the  possession  of  the  hedgehog,*  and 
pools  of  water,  and  the  true  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  : 
'  I  will  sweep  it  with  a  besom  of  destruction.'  For  except  the  walls 
of  baked  bricks,  which  were  restored  many  years  ago  for  the  purpose 
of  enclosing  wild  beasts,  the  whole  space  in  the  midst  is  a  solitude. 

"  I  was  informed  by  a  certain  Elamite  brother,  who  came  from 
those  regions,  and  now  leads  the  life  of  a  monk  at  Jerusalem,  that 
there  is  a  royal  hunting  ground  at  Babylon,  and  that  wild  game  of 
every  kind  is  contained  within  the  circuit  of  its  walls.''  f 

The  Assyrian,  Median,  and  AcLscmenian  monarchs 
had  always  made  hunting  their  chief  occupation  alter- 
nately with  war,  and  the  Sassanian  kings  followed  their 
example.  Of  the  hunting  expeditions  of  this  period 
we  have  vivid  pictures  in  the  beautiful  Sassanian  bas- 
reliefs  still  existing  at  Tak-i-Bostan. 

It  was  the  universal  belief  of  the  ecclesiastical 
writers  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  that  Babylon 
had  ceased  to  be  ;  and  Synesius,  for  instance,  says  that 
a  visitor  would  not  be  aware  that  such  a  city  had 
existed.  This  testimony  is,  however,  no  more  than 
hearsay,  and  so  need  not  be  more  fully  quoted. 

When  the  Arabs,  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventh 
century,  overthrew  the  Sassanian  kings,  and  took  pos- 
session of  Babylonia,  they  seem  to  have  found  few 
inhabitants  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  capital,  although 
the  Jews  still  lived  in  the  hamlets  of  the  neighbour- 
hood. But  the  Mahometans  retained  the  name  of 
District  of  Babil  as  the  designation  of  the  spot  on 
which  Hillah  was  afterwards  built,  in  A.D.  1100  ;  and 

*  So  the  Septuagint  and  Vulgate  render  the  word  translated  "  bittern" 
by  the  Authorised  Version. 

f  S.  Jerome  :  In  Isaiam,  ch.  xiii.  20  and  xiv.  22. 


THE   RUIN   OF  NINEVEH   AND   BABYLON.  29 

the  name  of  Babil  was.  as  we  have  already  seen, 
more  particularly  preserved  for  the  huge  mound  which 
has  recently  been  recognised  as  the  ruin  of  Bit-Saggil, 
called  the  Temple  or  Tomb  of  Belus  by  the  Greeks. 
The  Arabs  destroj^ed  Ctesiphon,  and  founded,  in  A.D. 
760,  the  city  of  Bagdad,  which  now,  as  inheriting 
the  rank  of  the  former  capitals,  earned  in  the  West  the 
title  of  the  New  Babylon. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  Europe,  and  see  what  has  been 
the  knowledge  of  these  ancient  sites  from  the  decay  of 
learning  which  followed  the  irruption  of  the  Goths 
up  to  the  present  day. 

Conspicuous  among  the  few  travellers  who  ventured 
into  the  hostile  regions  of  the  East  stands  Benjamin, 
a  Jewish  merchant  of  Tudela,  in  Northern  Spain,  who 
made  a  journey  through  foreign  countries  about  A.D. 
1160,  to  visit  the  synagogues  of  his  people,  especially  at 
Jerusalem,  the  holy  city  of  his  nation,  and  at  Bagdad, 
the  seat  of  its  last  princes.  In  the  preceding  century 
the  ancient  Jewish  community  of  Babylon,  the  "  Holy 
Synagogue  of  Babel,"  had  left  the  hamlets  on  the  site 
of  the  great  city,  and  had  settled  in  the  Mahometan 
capital.  Benjamin  passed  through  Mosul,  which,  he 
says,  is  united  by  a  bridge  with  the  ancient  Nineveh, 
and,  although  the  latter  lay  in  ruins,  he  saw  some 
small  towns  upon  its  site ;  one  of  these  was,  of  course, 
the  seat  of  the  Christian  bishopric  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made.  At  a  later  point  in  his 
narrative  the  traveller  speaks  of  the  extensive  ruins  of 
Babylon,  three  days'  journey  beyond  Bagdad ;  they 


30 


NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


included  the  palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar — that  is  to  say, 
probably  the  mound  of  Babil — and  the  ruin  of  Birs 
Nimroud,  which  he  supposes,  in  accordance  with  the 
Jewish  tradition,  to  be  the  Tower  of  Babel.  His 


SITE    OF    NINEVEH. 


account  of  the  latter,  which  shows  that  it  was  in  a  state 
of  better  preservation  than  at  present,  may  perhaps  be 
quoted  once  more  : — 

"  The  tower  built  by  the  dispersed  generation  is  four  miles  from 
Hillah.  It  is  constructed  of  bricks  called  al-ajur  "  [this  is  the  old 
Babylonian  word  for  a  baked  brick]  ;  "  the  base  measures  two  miles, 


THE    RUIN   OF   NINEVEH    AND    BABYLON.  31 

the  breadth  240  yards,  and  the  height  about  100  reeds  "  [a  measure  of 
six  cubits].  "A  spiral  passage,  built  into  the  tower  (from  ten  to 
twelve  yards),  leads  up  to  the  summit,  from  which  there  is  a 
prospect  of  twenty  miles,  the  country  being  one  wide  plain,  and 
quite  level.  The  heavenly  tire  which  struck  the  tower  split  it  to 
its  very  foundation." 

Shortly  after  the  death  of  Benjamin,  another  Jew, 
the  Rabbi  Pethachiah  of  Ratisbon,  also  made  a  pil- 
grimage to  the  East  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  the 
scattered  congregations  of  his  people.  It  must  always 
be  borne  in  mind  that  these  early  travellers  never 
journeyed  for  a  purely  scientific  purpose;  they  went 
as  traders  or  pilgrims,  or  political  envoys  or  missionaries, 
and  the  information  they  give  us  of  historical  or 
geographical  interest  is  always  composed  of  notes,  more 
or  less  scanty,  made  by  the  way.  The  narrative  of 
Pethachiah  has  only  come  down  to  us  in  the  form  of  an 
abridgment  made  by  one  of  his  disciples. 

"From  Nisibis,  after  five  days' journey,  Rabbi  Pethachiah  arrived 
at  the  new  Nineveh  on  the  Tigris.  He  crossed  the  river,  and,  after 
having  travelled  for  three  days,  he  arrived  at  the  ancient  Nineveh, 
which  is  now  ruined.  The  soil  in  the  neighbourhood  is  like  pitch, 
and  the  principal  place  of  Nineveh,  which  was  formerly  a  forest,  has 
been  overthrown  like  Sodom,  so  that  neither  herbs  nor  bushes  are 
to  be  found  there  ;  and  the  new  Nineveh  lies  upon  the  opposite 
bank. 

"  From  Bagdad  the  Rabbi  Pethachiah  went  in  two  days  to 
the  extremity  of  ancient  Babylon.  The  palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
the  wicked  is  entirely  ruined.  Near  its  old  walls  you  see  a  column, 
and  the  house  of  Daniel ;  you  see  also  the  stone  on  which  he 
used  to  sit,  and  the  marble  on  which  he  rested  his  feet ;  above  is  the 
stone  on  which  was  placed  the  book  that  he  wrote. 

"  On  his  way  to  the  tomb  of  Ezechiel,  Pethachiah  passed  by  the 
Tower  of  the  dispersed  generation.  It  is  falling  into  decay,  and 


32  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

forms  a  lofty  mound,  an  eternal  ruin  ;  but  the  town  which  was  in  its 
neighbourhood  has  been  demolished." 

Bagdad  is  almost  always  named  Babylon  by  the 
Babbi ;  but,  in  spite  of  the  inaccuracies  of  their  narra- 
tives, the  two  Israelites  stand  alone  among  the  travellers 
of  their  age.  It  is  disappointing,  after  their  accounts, 
to  find  that  Marco  Polo,  a  hundred  years  later,  visited 
Mosul  and  Bagdad  without  leaving  any  notice  of  the 
historical  sites  lying  near  these  towns,  in  his  delightful 
Book  concerning  the  Kingdoms  and  Marvels  of  the 
East.  Sir  John  Mandeville  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
Palestine  between  A.D.  1322  and  1356,  but  he  did  not 
visit  Mesopotamia.  His  account  of  that  region  is 
borrowed  from  ancient  writers  and  from  other  travellers 
of  his  period.  The  Friar  Odericus  wrote  an  itinerary  in 
A.D.  1330,  in  which  he  related  his  adventures  on  the 
way  to  Tartary,  but  beyond  a  mention  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel,  which  he  passed,  he  gives  us  no  particulars  of 
the  kind  that  we  require. 

Early  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  member  of  the 
noble  family  of  Conti  travelled  from  Venice  to  Arabia, 
Chalda?a,  and  India  for  the  purpose  of  trade ;  he 
returned  in  A.D.  1444.  During  his  sojourn  in 
Mahometan  countries  he  had  renounced  Christianity  in 
order  to  save  his  life,  which  was  in  danger  from  his 
fanatical  companions ;  and  on  his  return  to  Italy 
he  sought  absolution  from  Pope  Eugenius  IV.  This 
pontiff,  well  known  for  his  zeal  for  learning,  imposed 
upon  the  traveller  the  novel  penance  of  composing  and 
dictating  a  full  and  accurate  account  of  his  journeys, 


THE    RUIN   OP  NINEVEH    AND    BABYLON.  -          33 

and  this  was  written  down  in  Latin  by  his  Florentine 
secretary,  Poggio.  The  interest  which  it  aroused  at 
the  time  is  proved  by  the  Portuguese  translation,  which 
King  Manoel  I.  caused  to  be  made  in  A.D.  1500  for 
the  instruction  of  his  navigators,  who  had  recently  made 
their  way  round  the  Cape,  and  were  beginning  to 
explore  the  coasts  of  Asia.  Conti,  however,  fell  into 
the  common  mistake  made  by  European  travellers  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  occasionally  even  down  to  the  last 
century,  of  supposing  that  Bagdad  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  ancient  Babylon,  by  which  name  they  often 

call  the  Mahometan  capital.     His  words  are  : — 

*. 

"  On  the  river  Euphrates  (sic)  stands  a  part  of  the  most  noble 
and  ancient  city  of  Babylon,  fourteen  miles  in  circuit,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  which  at  present  call  it  Bagdad.  The  river  runs  through 
the  middle  of  it,  spanned  by  a  strong  bridge  of  fourteen  arches, 
which  unites  the  two  halves  of  the  city.  Many  remains  and 
foundations  of  ancient  buildings  are  still  to  be  seen." 

The  exact  state  of  the  information  which  the  scholars 
of  Western  Europe  possessed  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  is  shown  by  the  learned  and  celebrated  Geo- 
graphical Treasury  of  Ortelius,  of  Antwerp,  published 
in  A.D.  1596.  In  this  work  it  is  simply  stated  that 
certain  writers  identified  Nineveh  with  Mosul ;  whether 
this  is  correct  or  not  the  geographer  is  unable  to  decide ; 
Mosul  was  also  identified  with  Seleucia  by  some.  Most 
of  the  authorities  quoted  by  Ortelius  place  the  modern 
Bagdad,  or  Baldach,  as  it  was  often  called,  upon  the 
site  of  ancient  Babylon ;  Benjamin  of  Tudela  being 
the  only  exception.  It  was  the  easier  for  Ortelius 
D 


34  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE 

to  accept  this  identification  because,  so  confusing-  were 
the  scanty  reports  of  mediaeval  travellers,  he  believes, 
like  Conti,  that  Bag-dad  was  upon  the  Euphrates,  and 
there  he  sets  it  in  his  map. 

We  have  now  come  to  the  period  when  travellers  in 
the  East  began  to  multiply,  and  their  reports  became 
fuller  and  more  intelligent.  We  shall  find,  however, 
a  certain  vagueness  in  their  opinions  about  the  sites 
of  Nineveh  and  Babylon.  The  first  they  place  near 
Mosul,  but  whether  it  lay  on  the  eastern  bank,  opposite 
the  modern  town,  or  some  miles  higher  up  the  river,  at 
Eski- Mosul,  they  are  often  at  a  loss  to  say.  Babylon  is 
generally  placed  by  them  between  Felujah,  where  the 
traveller  leaves  the  Euphrates  on  his  way  to  Bagdad, 
and  the  latter  city,  which  they  often  supposed  to  stand 
on  the  same  ground  as  part  of  the  ancient  capital ;  the 
ruin  of  Akerkuf,  or  Nimrod's  Tower,  which  is  passed  on 
the  road,  was  generally  accepted  as  the  Tower  of  Babel. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  documents  in  Hak- 
luyt's  collection  of  voyages  and  travels,  published  in 
1599,  is  a  translation  from  the  Italian  of  the  narrative 
of  Cesare  de'  Federici,  or,  as  he  is  here  called,  Caesar 
Frederike,  a  merchant  of  Venice,  who  started  on  a 
journey  to  the  East  in  1563.  He  is  the  first  who  gives 
us  an  account  of  the  Tower  of  Akerkuf  to  which 
allusion  has  just  been  made,  and  which  has  recently 
been  proved,  by  inscriptions  in  cuneiform  characters,  to 
have  been  part  of  the  ancient  Babylonian  town  of  Dur- 
Kurigalzu.  It  is,  indeed,  very  far  from  Borsippa,  where 
the  Tower  of  Babel  actually  was. 


AXBRKUF,    OR   NIMROD'S   TOWER. 


D  2 


36  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Leonhardt  Rauwolf  was  a  physician  of  Augsburg, 
who  travelled  to  the  East  in  1573,  for  the  purpose 
of  collecting  medical  herbs.  At  Aleppo  he  disguised 
himself  in  Oriental  garments,  and  started  with  a  caravan 
for  Bagdad.  At  Felujah,  on  the  Euphrates,  he  saw 
mounds  which,  according  to  the  common  error  which 
has  already  been  mentioned,  he  supposed  to  be  the 
remains  of  Babylon  ;  and  he  gives  a  description  of 
Akerkuf,  under  the  belief  that  he  had  there  beheld 
the  scene  of  the  confusion  of  tongues.  His  account  ol 
Nineveh  is  more  correct : — • 

"  At  Mosul  and  in  the  neighbourhood  lay  in  ancient  times  the 
mighty  city  of  Nineveh.  ...  In  our  days,  except  the  fortress 
which  stands  on  a  hill  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  and  certain 
small  hamlets  which,  according  to  the  inhabitants,  formed  part  of  the 
ancient  city,  no  ruins,  such  as  those  of  Babylon,  are  still  remaining." 

The  fortress  on  the  hill  is,  of  course,  Kouyunjik, 
which,  as  we  now  know,  covers  the  ruined  palace  of 
Sennacherib  and  his  successors. 

In  1583  there  was  a  band  of  English  traders  at 
Bagdad  and  Bassorah.  They  were  preparing  the  way 
for  the  foundation  of  the  East  India  Company,  and 
some  of  their  letters  were  published  in  consequence 
of  the  general  interest  felt  in  the  new  Eastern  trade. 
In  one  of  these,  John  Eldred,  not  unmindful  of  the 
historical  ground  on  which  he  stood,  speaks  of  Bagdad 
as  identical  with  the  ancient  city  of  Babylon.  It  was 
soon  after  this  time  that  Anthony  Sherley,  whose 
observations  are  placed  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter, 


THE    RUIN    OF   NINEVEH   AXD    BABYLON.  37 

visited  the  desolate  scenes  of  ancient  magnificence  which 
made  so  strong  an  impression  upon  him. 

One  of  the  most  intelligent  travellers  in  the  early 
years  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  John  Cartvvright. 
He  was  the  first  European  who  attempted  a  survey  of 
the  rains  of  Nineveh,  among  which  he  seems  to  have 
included  the  remains  of  neighbouring  cities,  unless  his 
figures  are  entirely  wrong. 

"  We  set  forward  toward  Mosul.  .  .  .  Here  .  .  .  was 
Ninive,  built  by  Nimrod,  but  finished  by  Ninus.  ...  It  seemes 
by  the  ruinous  foundation,  which  I  thoroughly  viewed,  that  it  was 
built  with  four  sides,  but  not  equall  or  square,  for  the  two  longer 
sides  had  cache  of  them,  as  wee  ghesse,  a  hundred  and  fifty  furlongs, 
the  two  shorter  sides  ninety  furlongs,  which  aniounteth  to  four 
hundred  and  eighty  furlongs  of  ground,  which  makes  sixty  miles, 
accounting  eight  furlongs  to  an  Italian  mile.  Now  it  is  destroyed, 
as  God  foretold  it  should  be,  by  the  Chaldyeans,  being  nothing  else 
than  a  sepulture  of  her  selfe,  a  little  Towne  of  small  trade,  where  the 
Patriarch  of  the  Nestorians  keeps  his  seat. 

"  The  citie  of  Bagdad  by  some  is  called  New  Babylone,  and  may 
well  be,  because  it  did  rise  out  of  the  ruins  of  old  Babylon,  not  farre 
distant.  .  .  .  Two  places  of  greate  antiquitie  did  we  thoroughly 
view  in  this  country ;  the  one  was  the  ruines  of  the  old  Tower 
of  Babel,  as  the  inhabitants  hold  unto  this  day,  built  by  Nimrod. 
.  .  .  And  now  at  this  day  that  which  remayneth  is  called  the 
remnant  of  the  Tower  of  Babel ;  there  standing  as  much  as  is 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  compass,  and  as  high  as  the  stone-worke  of 
Paul's  Steeple  in  London.  It  was  built  of  burnt  brick  cimented  and 
joyned  with  bituminous  mortar.  .  .  .  The  bricks  are  three 
quarters  of  a  yard  in  length  and  one  quarter  in  thickness,  and 
betweene  every  course  of  bricks  there  lieth  a  course  of  mats  made  of 
canes  and  palm-tree  leaves,  so  fresh  as  if  they  had  been  laid  withiu 
one  yeare. 

"  The  other  place  remarkable  is  the  ruines  of  old  Babylon.    . 
Some    doe    think   that   the    ruines   of  Nimrod's  Tower  is  but  the 
foundation  of  the  Temple  of  Bel,  and  that,  therefore,  many  travellers 


38  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

have  been  deceived  who  suppose  they  have  seen  part  of  the  tower 
which  Nimrod  builded.  But  who  can  tell  whether  it  be  one  or  the 
other  1  Jt  may  be  that  confused  chaos  we  saw  was  the  ruins  of 
both,  the  Temple  of  Bel  being  founded  on  that  of  Nimrod." 

The  tower  here  described  is,  of  course,  again  Aker- 
kuf,  which  was  always  forced  upon  the  notice  of 
European  travellers,  through  its  position  on  the  road 
leading  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Tigris,  and  to 
the  city  of  Bagdad.  Very  few  of  these  strangers  from 
the  west  went  southwards  to  Hillah,  or  examined  the 
actual  ruins  of  Babylon.  But,  at  any  rate,  they  passed 
through  the  territory  of  Babylon.  Gasparo  Balbi,  a 
Venetian  jeweller,  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  both 
travelled  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  speak  in 
much  the  same  terms  as  Cartwright  of  the  remains  that 
they  saw  on  their  way  to  Bagdad  between  the  two 
great  rivers.  Hamilton  names  Masol  (Mosul)  as  the 
ancient  Nineveh. 

Don  Garcia  de  Silva  y  Figueroa,  the  ambassador 
from  Philip  III.  of  Spain  to  the  Persian  Court  at  this 
period,  alludes  to  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon  ; 
but  a  much  fuller  description  of  the  latter  is  given 
by  Pietro  della  Valle,  a  Roman  gentleman,  who,  though 
he  still  fancies  that  Bagdad  was  on  the  site  of  Babylon, 
paid  a  visit  to  the  great  mound  near  Hillah,  which  has 
never  lost  the  name  of  Babel,  but  which  he  mistook  for 
the  tower  the  building  of  which  led  to  the  confusion 
of  tongues.  Della  Valle  caused  an  artist  who  accom- 
panied him  to  make  a  drawing  of  the  mound  ;  he  also 
collected  some  of  the  bricks  with  which  the  ground  was 


THE   RUIN   OF  NINEVEH  AND   BABYLON.  39 

strewn,  and  subsequently  took  them  back  with  him 
to  Rome,  where  he  presented  one  of  them  to  Athanasius 
Kircher,  the  learned  Jesuit.  Kircher,  as  he  tells  us  in 
his  treatise  on  the  Tower  of  Babel,  a  monument  of 
erudition  and  ingenuity,  placed  this  brick  in  the 
museum  which  he  had  recently  founded,  in  the  belief 
that  ii>  had  formed  part  of  an  edifice  which  had  been 
the  scene  of  one  of  (rod's  most  astounding  judgments 
upon  mankind.  It  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Museo 
Kircheriano,  and  must  always  be  of  interest  to  archae- 
ologists as  the  first  relic  of  Babylonian  antiquity  which 
reached  Europe. 

Pedro  Teixeira,  a  Portuguese  who  visited  Mesopo- 
tamia in  the  first  years  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
seems  aware  that  the  real  site  of  Babylon  is  at  some 
distance  from  Bagdad,  which  generally  bears  the  name, 
and  says  that  the  ruins  are  still  called  Babel,  but 
that  only  "  inconsiderable  footsteps,"  as  the  English 
translator  has  it,  still  remain  to  show  what  the  great  city 
was.  Sir  Thomas  Herbert  went  out  with  the  British 
Ambassador  to  Shah  Abbas  in  1626.  He  returned 
through  Mesopotamia,  and,  accordingly,  mentions  Bag- 
dad as  the  new  Babylon,  and  the  Tower  of  Akerkuf. 
The  French  traveller,  Tavernier,  visited  Mosul  in  1644, 
and  speaks  thus,  according  to  a  translation  of  the 
period : — 

"Nineveh  was  built  upon  the  left  shoar  of  the  Tigris,  upon 
Assyria-side,  being  only  a  ieap  of  rubbish  extending  almost  a  league 
along  the  river.  .  .  .  Though  Bagdat  usually  bears  the  name  of 
Babylon,  yet  it  is  at  a  great  distance  from  the  ancient  Babylon." 


40  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

He  proceeds  to  describe  the  well-known  ruin  of 
Akerkuf,  but  says  it  is  doubtful  whether  this  really 
represents  the  Tower  of  Babel. 

Meanwhile,  the  various  religious  orders  —the  Augus- 
tinians,  the  Carmelites,  the  Franciscans,  and  the  Jesuits 
— were  sending  out  their  missions  into  Asiatic  Turkey 
and  into  Persia.  Father  Vincenzo  Maria  di  Santa 
Caterina  da  Siena,  a  Carmelite,  returned  overland  from 
India  in  1057,  and  though  the  account  which  he  gives  of 
this  journey  is  somewhat  confused,  at  least  he  visited 
Hillah,  and  was,  perhaps,  the  first  since  Benjamin  of 
Tudela  who  places  the  site  of  Babylon  correctly  :  — 

"On  the  16th  September  we  arrived  at  Hillah,  passing  along 
beautiful  banks  covered  with  palms  and  other  fruit  trees,  and 
abounding  in  the  necessaries  of  life.  Here  we  remained  for  several 
days. 

"It  is  a  very  genei'al  opinion  that  this  place  was  the  ancient 
Babylon,  which  is  proved  by  the  site  being  on  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates,  by  the  fertility  of  the  adjacent  lands,  and  by  the  ruins  of 
magnificent  buildings,  which  abound  for  many  miles  around  ;  but 
above  all,  by  the  remains  of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  which  to  this  day  is 
called  Nim  rod's  Tower.  We  were  curious  to  see  these  buildings,  but 
finding  that  no  one  would  accompany  us  for  fear  of  robbers,  we  were 
compelled  to  give  it  up."  * 

Among  the  collection  of  Edifying  Letters  written 
by  various  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  who  were 
engaged  in  foreign  missions,  there  is  one  sent  from 
Bassorah,  on  October  19th,  1675,  to  Monsieur  Savary, 
general  agent  for  the  Duke  of  Mantua  in  France.  In 

*  I  am  obliged  to  quote  this  rare  book  at  second-hand  from  Mrs.  Rich's 
preface  to  her  husband's  "  Journey  to  Babylon."  (London,  1839.) 


THE    RUIN    OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  41 

this  there  is  an  account  of  the  journey  of  the  writer 
through  Mesopotamia  : — 

"On  April  13th  we  arrived  at  Mousol,  or  Mosul.  This  town 
is  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  spot  where  Nineveh  once  existed  ; 
some  ruins  of  the  latter  are  still  seen,  half  buried  under  the  ground. 
On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Tigris,  in  the  country  of  the 
Medes,  there  are  several  Christian  hamlets.  It  is  on  the  same  side 
that  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  are  perceived.  In  the  midst  is  a  tomb, 
held  by  tradition  to  be  that  of  the  Prophet  Jonah,  which  the  Turks 
have  enclosed  in  a  mosque  built  for  that  purpose  on  these  re- 
mains. 

"  Scarcely  had  we  penetrated  a  few  leagues  into  Chaldtea  along 
the  river,  when  we  saw  in  the  distance  the  ruins  of  ancient  Babylon, 
the  mournful  dwelling-place  of  the  Jewish  people  under  the  reign  of 
Nebuchadnezzar.  These  ruins  extend  farther  than  the  eye  can 
reach  :  they  are  vast  and  impressive.  That  day  we  continued  our 
journey ;  and  if  night  had  not  overtaken  us  in  a  certain  spot,  we 
should  have  seen  the  remains  of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  although  some 
say  that  these  are  the  ruins  of  a  tower  built  by  the  modern  Arabs. 
On  the  nineteenth  we  arrived  at  last  at  Bagdad,  which  is  the 
new  Babylon." 

At  the  end  of  Vol.  XXX.  of  the  first  edition  of 
the  Lcttres  Edifiantes,  there  was  a  dissertation,  after- 
wards suppressed,  in  support  of  the  opinion  hinted  at 
in  this  letter,  that  Bagdad  was  on  the  site  of  a  part 
of  Babylon,  and  that  the  mounds  hetween  the  modern 
city  and  the  Euphrates,  including  the  Tower  of  Aker- 
kuf,  show  the  great  extent  of  the  ancient  capital,  which 
must  have  covered  the  ground  between  the  two  rivers. 
The  same  views  were  expressed  by  another  Jesuit,  the 
Father  Villotte,  who  published  in  1730  a  book  of 
travels  in  Turkey,  Persia,  Armenia,  Arabia,  and  Bar- 
bary.  It  is  useless,  however,  to  say  more  on  this  notion, 


42  NEW   LIGHT    ON    TEE    BIBLE. 

which,  although  it  had  much  to  support  it,  was  soon 
universally  abandoned. 

We  are  now  coming  to  the  age  of  scientific  tra- 
vellers. In  1734  a  member  of  the  French  Academy, 
Otter,  was  sent  out  by  the  Count  de  Maurepas,  Minister 
and  Secretary  of  State,  in  order  to  elucidate  by  his 
researches  the  geography  and  history  of  the  East.  In 
a  map  which  he  appends  to  his  work,  he  places  Nineveh, 
correctly,  opposite  Mosul,  although  he  had  been  slightly 
.confused  by  the  conflicting  traditions  he  found  existing 
among  the  natives  : — 

"  Abulfeda  [the  Arabian  geographer]  says  that  Nineveh  was  on 
the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  the  modern  Mosul ;  either  he 
must  have  been  mistaken  or  the  inhabitants  of  the  district  are 
greatly  in  error,  for  the  latter  place  Nineveh  on  the  western  bank  of 
the  Tigris,  on  the  spot  which  they  call  Eski-Mosul.  If  we  attempt 
to  conciliate  the  two  opinions  by  supposing  that  Nineveh  was  built 
on  both  sides  of  the  river,  nothing  is  gained,  for  Eski-Mosul  is  seven 
or  eight  leagues  higher  up  the  stream.  One  point  seems  to  favour 
the  belief  of  Abulfeda,  and  that  is,  that  opposite  Mosul  there  is 
a  place  called  Tell-i-Toubah — that  is  to  say,  the  Hill  of  Repentance — 
where,  they  say,  the  Ninevites  put  on  sackcloth  and  ashes  to  turn 
away  the  wrath  of  God." 

Otter  is  the  first  traveller  who  noticed  the  Rock 
of  Behistun,  with  its  bas-reliefs  and  inscriptions,  which 
afterwards  played  so  important  a  part  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  cuneiform  characters.  He  identifies 
Tak-Kesra,  so  often  mistaken  for  the  palace  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  with  the  residence  of  the  Sassanian 
nionarchs  at  Ctesiphon.  Finally  he  reached  Hillah : — 

"  I  arrived  at  Hillah,  which  Yakut  [an  Arabian  geographer] 
places  in  the  district  of  Babel.  .  .  .  The  city  of  Babel,  or 


THE    EUIN   OF  NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  43 

Babylon,  formerly  the  capital  of  this  country,  left  its  name  to  the 
whole  district." 

Unfortunately,  though  he  occupies  several  pages 
with  an  account  of  the  legends  that  han^  about  the 
spot,  he  gives  no  description  of  the  ruins,  but  merely 
remarks : — 

"The  Turkish  geographer  places  Babylon  near  Hillah,  on  the 
left  of  the  road  as  you  go  to  Bagdad.  At  the  present  day  nothing 
but  a  wood  is  to  be  seen  there." 

Probably  the  fear  of  Bedouin  robbers  prevented 
Otter,  like  so  many  others,  from  visiting  the  lonely 
mounds  and  ridges. 

Edward  Ives  was  a  military  surgeon  who  travelled 
overland  from  India  in  1758.  He  alludes  to  the 
common  view  that  Akerkuf  represents  the  Tower  of 
Babel,  but  does  not  himself  hold  it ;  and  he  is  aware  of 
the  inaccuracy  of  the  opinion  that  Bagdad  stood  upon 
the  site  of  Babylon,  but  he  did  not  visit  the  true 
remains  of  that  city.  Later,  he  passed  by  the  ruins  of 
Nineveh  and  the  tomb  of  Jonah,  but  is  in  doubt 
whether  he  shall  place  the  true  site  there  or  higher  up 
the  river,  at  Eski-Mosul,  according  to  the  view  held 
by  some,  which  had  caused  so  much  difficulty  to  his 
predecessor,  Otter. 

Another  missionary  of  the  Carmelite  order,  Father 
Emmanuel  de  Saint  Albert,  made  a  report  on  the  ruins 
of  Babylon  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  which  aroused 
interest  in  France,  and,  though  it  was  never  published, 
formed  the  basis  of  a  memoir  on  the  position  of  Babylon, 
read  in  1755  by  D'Anville  before  the  French  Academy 


44  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

of  Inscriptions.  Hitherto  the  only  real  description 
of  any  part  of  the  remains  near  Hillah,  which  D'Anville 
finally  accepts  as  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  had  been  Pietro 
della  Valle's  account  of  the  mound  of  Babel.  Father 
Emmanuel  had  discovered  the  vast  mass  of  the  Birs 
Nimroud — the  position  of  which  Benjamin  of  Tudela 
vaguely  indicates — on  the  west  bank  of  the  Euphrates, 
five  miles  south  of  Hillah,  and  thus  vindicated  the 
description  of  the  ancient  authors,  who  divided  the  city 
into  two  parts,  between  which  the  river  ran.  D'Anville 
concludes  his  memoir,  which  finally  settled  the  question 
of  the  identification  of  the  site  of  Babylon,  by  deciding 
that  the  existing  remains,  and  the  name  of  Babel,  which 
has  never  been  effaced  from  the  memory  of  the  in- 
habitants, determine,  by  their  agreement  with  the  dis- 
tance between  Seleucia — the  site  of  which  is  also  now 
settled — and  Babylon,  as  given  by  Pliny,  Strabo,  and 
others,  the  question  of  the  position  of  the  latter  city. 
He  adds  : — 

"  The  written  characters  which,  as  Father  Emmanuel  says  in  his 
report,  are  impressed  upon  the  bricks  which  remain  of  buildings 
so  ancient  that  they  may  have  formed  part  of  the  original  Babylon, 
would  be,  for  scholars  who  wish  to  penetrate  into  the  most  remote 
antiquity,  an  entirely  new  matter  of  meditation  and  study." 

It  now  only  remained  for  others  to  take  up  and 
complete  the  researches  of  the  Pere  Emmanuel.  The 
Danish  traveller,  Carsten  Niebuhr,  was  one  of  the  most 
learned,  intelligent,  and  accurate  of  the  men  who 
have  published  accounts  of  foreign  countries  ;  and  his 
much  towards  laying  the  foundations  for 


THE    RUIN   OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  45 

future  research  into  the  Persian  and  Assyrian  inscrip- 
tions. 

It  was  from  Niebuhr's  plates  of  the  cuneiform 
characters  at  Persepolis  that  Grotefend,  as  we  shall  see 
in  a  subsequent  chapter,  first  deciphered  the  names  of 
Darius  and  Xerxes,  and  opened  the  way  for  all  further 
researches  of  this  kind.  On  his  way  home  from  Persia,  in 
1765,  Niebuhr  passed  through  Bagdad  and  Mosul,  and 
explored  the  country  which  surrounds  those  two  towns. 
He  says : — 

"  Of  Babylon  and  Nineveh  few  indications  are  now  to  be  found. 
These  famous  cities  lay  in  marshy  regions,  where  hewn  stone  was 
costly,  and  where  bad  materials  were  employed  for  building,  which 
have  long  fallen  into  ruin,  or  have  been  carried  off  to  other  towns." 

Niebuhr  gives  a  fairly  complete  description  of  the 
mound  of  Babil,  and  identifies  it  with  the  citadel 
described  by  Greek  writers.  He  visited  Birs  Nimroud, 
and  he  identifies  it  with  the  Temple  of  Bel,  described  by 
Herodotus  and  others.  Our  traveller  says  much  about 
the  inscribed  clay  bricks  which  lay  about  these  ruins, 
and  concludes  that  they  contained  the  records  of  the 
Babylonians,  such  as  those  of  which  Pliny  speaks. 
Niebuhr  had  no  difficulty  in  identifying  the  site  of 
Nineveh  also ;  the  natives  pointed  out  to  him  a  mound 
called  Nunia,  on  which  stood  the  tomb  of  the  prophet 
Jonah,  and  another  great  mound  called  Kallah  Nunia, 
or  the  fortress  of  Nineveh,  on  which  stood  the  village 
of  Kaindsjag,  or  Kouyunjik,  besides  the  traces  of  the 
walls  of  the  great  city ;  he  also  speaks  of  the  ruins 
of  Nimroud,  eight  hours  below  Mosul.  Here  we  have 


46  NEW  LIGHT   ON   THE    BIBLE. 

a  clear  aud  intelligent  description  of  the  ancient  sites, 
which,  like  the  rest  of  the  traveller's  work,  attracted 
much  attention  among  the  learned  in  Europe,  and, 
above  all,  induced  scholars  to  take  an  interest  in  the 
inscriptions  found  upon  these  famous  ruins. 

One  of  the  learned  priests  sent  out  from  Europe 
to  Asiatic  Turkey  was  the  Abbe  Beauchamp,  Vicar- 
General  of  Babylon  in  1782.  His  account  of  his 
researches  among  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  city  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Journal  des  Savants,  and  quickly  translated 
into  English  in  the  European  Magazine  of  May,  1792. 
He  visited  the  mound  called  Babel  by  Pietro  dell  a 
Valle  and  Otter,  but  named  by  him  Makloube,  or  the 
Euin,  according  to  another  popular  designation.  Besides 
this,  he  first  called  the  attention  of  archa3ologists  to 
a  second  mound  near  the  first;  he  calls  it  Babel, 
but  it  is  generally  named  the  Kasr,  or  palace ;  some 
of  the  stamped  bricks  of  which  it  is  composed  he 
extracted  from  their  bituminous  cement,  and  brought 
home  to  Europe.  Of  Birs  Nimroud,  which  he  calls 
Broussa,  he  says  little,  although  he  had  seen  it. 

In  1794  a  physician,  named  Olivier,  was  sent  out 
by  the  French  Government  to  make  researches  in  the 
Turkish  Empire  and  in  Persia.  He  is  very  clear  as 
to  the  site  of  Nineveh,  and  says  that  all  modern 
geographers  seem  to  agree  in  placing  it  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  Mosul.  He  visited  the 
"  Fortress  of  Nunia,"  the  village  of  Nunia,  in  which  the 
tomb  of  Jonah  stands,  and  the  traces  of  the  ancient 
walls.  During  his  stay  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bagdad, 


THE    RUIN   OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  47 

Olivier  inspected  Tak-Kesra,  already  identified  as  the 
palace  of  Ctesiphon,  and  made  a  survey  of  the  ruins  of 
Babylon,  of  which  he  says  : — 

"  The  ground  on  which  the  city  stood,  twenty  leagues  to  the 
south  of  Bngdad,  presents  at  first  sight  no  trace  of  a  town  ;  it  must  be 
traversed  in  all  directions  before  certain  mounds  and  slight  elevations 
can  be  observed,  and  it  is  seen  that  the  soil  has  everywhere  been 
disturbed.  The  Arabs  have  been  busy  here  for  twelve  centuries 
excavating  and  extracting  bricks,  of  which  Cufa,  Bagdad,  Meshed 
Ali,  Meshed  Hossain,  Hillah,  and  other  towns  have  been  built." 

A  league  north  of  Hillah,  Olivier  observed  the 
mound  of  Babil,  which  he  identifies  with  the  Temple  of 
Belus ;  and  he  found  large  portions  of  the  ancient  brick 
walls.  He  was  unable — as  so  many  travellers  had  been 
before  him — to  visit  Birs  Nimroud,  which  he  knew 
well  by  report. 

In  1812  the  ruins  of  Babylon  were  for  the  first  time 
completely  examined.  Claudius  James  Rich  was  ap- 
pointed political  resident  for  the  East  India  Company  at 
Bagdad  in  1808,  and  his  intelligence  and  learning  soon 
induced  him  to  study  the  antiquities  of  the  historical 
region  in  which  his  official  duties  had  placed  him.  In 
1812  he  visited  the  site  of  the  great  city,  carefully 
studied  the  disposition  of  the  various  mounds,  and 
measured  them  with  equal  accuracy  ;  he  was  also  able  to 
collect  some  inscriptions  on  clay  tablets  and  cylinders, 
which  he  presented  to  the  British  Museum.  Ten  years 
later  Eich  examined  the  site  of  Nineveh,  and  obtained 
some  inscriptions  on  clay  and  stone  from  the  mounds  of 
Kouyunjik  and  Nebi  Yunus;  the  ruins  of  Nimroud, 


48  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

too,  alluded  to  by  Niebuhr,  were  fully  described  by  the 
British  resident. 

About  the  same  time  Sir  Eobert  Ker  Porter,  whose 
work  forms  one  of  the  most  valuable  descriptions  of 
modern  Persia,  paid  a  visit  to  the  ruins  of  Babylon 
in  company  with  Rich,  who  was  already  well  acquainted 
with  them.  He  has  given  us  a  very  full  account, 
to  which  he  adds  notes  of  other  old  Babylonian  sites 
around  Bagdad ;  some  of  the  inscriptions  which  he 
collected  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum. 

A  few  years  later  Buckingham  passed  through  the 
ruins  both  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  and  afterwards 
published  a  full  account  of  them. 

But  we  have  now  reached  a  period  when  the  sites  of 
these  ancient  cities  begin  to  be  as  well  known  to 
the  learned  as  the  most  familiar  ruins  of  Europe.  Since 
Buckingham,  detailed  descriptions  have  been  given  to 
the  world  by  Botta,  Place,  Sir  H.  Layard,  Sir  H. 
Rawlinson,  and  M.  Oppert ;  but  it  would  be  useless 
to  examine  these  one  by  one. 

Early  in  the  present  century,  then,  the  sites  of 
Nineveh  and  Babylon  had  been  fully  identified,  and  the 
greatest  interest  had  been  aroused  in  Europe  by  the 
descriptions  of  travellers,  and  by  the  antiquities  which 
had  been  brought  home  from  these  historical  spots,  and 
stored  in  our  museums.  It  was  recognised  that  some  great 
results  must  follow  if  the  inscriptions  could  be  deciphered 
and  translated.  Pliny  had  spoken  of  the  ancient  re- 
cords, reaching  back  to  a  fabulous  antiquity,  which 
were  preserved  at  Babylon  upon  baked  bricks  ;  and  here 


THE    RUIN    OF   NINEVEH   AND    BABYLON.  49 

were  some  of  these  very-baked  bricks  at  the  disposal  of 
any  who  could  read  them.  Most  scholars,  when  these 
inscriptions  were  first  found,  had  looked  upon  the  task 
as  hopeless ;  the  baked  bricks  from  Nineveh  and  Baby- 
lon must  remain  for  ever  like  the  book  with  seven  seals, 
which  no  man  could  open.  But  in  the  first  years  of  the 
century  the  clue  to  their  interpretation  had  been  found. 
It  did  not  come  from  Nineveh  or  Babylon  ;  it  came 
from  the  palaces  of  Persepolis. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    PALACES    OF    PERSEPOLIS. 

ACCORDING  to  the  Persian  poets  and  historians,  Jem- 
sheed  was  the  fourth  King  of  Persia,  and  ruled  the 
country  for  seven  hundred  years.  At  the  beginning 
of  his  reign  the  world  was  calm,  and  free  from  discord; 
even  the  spirits  and  the  birds  obeyed  him.  He  taught 
men  how  to  forge  iron,  and  to  make  helmets,  lances, 
cuirasses,  coats  of  mail,  and  armour  for  horses ;  in 
this  course  of  instruction  he  was  occupied  for  fifty 
years.  For  another  fifty  years  he  employed  himself 
in  the  manufacture  of  tissues  of  linen,  silk,  wool, 
beaver's  hair ;  he  showed  his  subjects  the  art  of  twist- 
ing, spinning,  and  interlacing  threads,  of  making  gar- 
ments of  woven  material,  and  of  composing  rich 
brocades.  During  another  fifty  years,  Jemsheed  assem- 
bled together  the  members  of  the  various  professions, 
and  formed  guilds  and  castes  of  priests,  warriors,  agri- 
culturists, and  labourers.  Yet  another  half  century  was 
spent  in  training  men  to  mould  bricks,  and  to  build 
baths,  lofty  edifices,  and  palaces  ;  precious  stones  were 
sought  for,  perfumes  were  distilled,  medicines  were  first 
compounded  ;  all  that  had  hitherto  been  unknown  was 
brought  to  light ;  never  had  the  world  seen  so  diligent 


THE  PALACES  OF  PERSEPOLIS.         51 

an  investigator  of  its  secrets.  During  fifty  years 
Jemsheed  travelled  through  all  the  countries  of  the 
earth.  On  his  return,  he  caused  a  throne  to  be  erected 
for  himself,  encrusted  with  jewels  ;  and  at  his  order 
the  spirits  raised  it  to  the  height  of  the  vault  of 
heaven.  Here  the  mighty  monarch  sat  like  the  sun 
shining  in  the  zenith  ;  his  subjects  assembled  around 
his  seat,  marvelling  at  his  high  fortunes.  Three  hun- 
dred years  passed,  during  which  not  only  death,  but 
also  pain  and  distress,  were  unknown  among  men  ;  the 
evil  spirits  were  bound  like  slaves  in  the  service  of 
the  great  king  ;  order  prevailed  throughout  mankind, 
and  the  world  was  filled  with  the  sweet  sounds  of  music. 

But  the  king  became  proud,  and  revolted  against 
God,  saying :  "  I  recognise  none  in  the  world  besides 
myself;  it  is  I  that  have  brought  the  intelligence 
of  mankind  into  operation ;  it  is  through  my  will  that 
the  universe  has  been  set  in  order ;  to  me  you  owe 
your  food,  your  sleep,  your  tranquillity,  your  clothing, 
and  all  your  pleasures.  Who  dares  to  say  that  there  is 
another  king  besides  me  ? "  Then  the  Divine  favour 
abandoned  him ;  the  world  was  filled  with  discord ;  his 
subjects  deserted  him,  and  his  power  disappeared.  A 
rebel  prince  took  possession  of  the  throne,  and,  although 
Jemsheed  escaped  and  lay  hid  for  a  hundred  years, 
he  was  at  last  seized  and  sawn  in  two  by  the  ordei 
of  his  enemy. 

The  reason  for  which  it  seems  not  unfitting  to 
begin  an  account  of  the  palaces  of  Persepolis  with 
the  legend  of  Jemsheed,  as  told  by  Firdusi,  whose  Book 
E  2 


52  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

of  the  Kings  is  accessible  to  all  in  the  charming  French 
translation  of  Jules  Mohl,  is  that  for  many  centuries 
the  Persians  have  attributed  to  this  hero  of  the  golden 
age  the  foundation  of  the  famous  structures  which  form 
the  subject  of  this  chapter.  Takht-i-Jemsheed,  the 
Throne  of  Jemsheed,  is  the  name  by  which  the  ruins 
are  known  among  the  natives  of  the  spot ;  and  upon 
the  sculptured  walls,  where  we  see  the  effigies  of  Darius 
and  Xerxes,  they  behold  with  awe  the  similitude  of 
the  primeval  monarch  and  the  marvellous  events  of  his 
Saturuian  reign.  Although  we  have  to  give  a  more 
prosaic  account  of  the  builders  of  the  palaces,  the  latter 
are  indeed  wo:'1^  of  the  most  flourishing  epoch  of 
Persian  history ;  and  the  r  ader  will,  it  is  hoped,  for- 
give the  introduction  in  this  place  of  a  detailed  account 
of  a  unique  monument  of  antiquity. 

Thirty  miles  from  the  modern  town  of  Shiraz,  in 
South-western  Persia,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Each  met, 
part  of  a  range  of  hills  composed  of  a  dark  grey 
limestone  marble,  which  supplies  a  material  for  building 
of  the  most  durable  quality,  there  rises  from  the  plain  a 
vast  terrace  of  irregular  dimensions :  partly  a  natural 
spur  of  the  mountain,  partly  the  work  of  man.  Enclosed 
in  a  semi-circular  hollow  against  the  hill-side,  it  has 
somewhat  the  appearance  of  an  immense  theatre.  The 
western  side,  nearly  fifteen  thousand  feet  in  length, 
which  abuts  upon  the  plain,  is  faced,  as  well  as  the  two 
ends,  with  a  wall  composed  of  huge  irregular  blocks 
of  the  local  marble,  finely  polished  and  fitted  together 
without  cement ;  the  height  varies  in  different  parts, 


THE   PALACES    OF  PERSE  POLIS.  53 

but  was  probably  twenty  feet  in  its  original  state.  On 
the  south  wall  are  four  huge  slabs,  bearing  cuneiform 
inscriptions  (two  in  the  Persian  language,  one  in  Baby- 
lonian, and  one  in  Susian),  which  inform  the  visitor,  as 
they  are  now  interpreted,  that  the  terrace  which  he 
beholds  is  the  work  of  King  Darius,  the  son  of 
Hystaspes,  who  implores  his  god  Ahuramazda  to  protect 
and  preserve  the  structure.  Access  from  the  plain 
to  the  summit  of  the  platform  is  gained  by  a  mag- 
nificent staircase  of  four  flights  of  steps  towards  the 
northern  end  of  the  western  face,  occupying  a  break  of 
forty-five  feet  in  the  wall,  and  consisting  of  fifty-five 
steps,  three  inches  and  a  half  in  height  and  twenty- 
two  feet  in  breadth,  so  that  six  horsemen  abreast  can 
mount  with  ease  ;  two  diverging  flights  arrive,  half-way 
from  the  bottom,  at  two  landings,  whence  two  other 
flights  converge  towards  the  top.  On  arriving  at 
the  summit,  the  visitor  is  confronted  by  two  piers 
of  masonry,  in  which  are  embedded  two  colossal  figures 
of  bulls  :  their  heads  project  from  the  front,  one  side  of 
their  bodies  stands  out  slightly  from  the  inner  walls, 
and  the  rest  is  concealed.  This  is  the  entrance  to 
the  grand  porch  which  formed  the  vestibule  to  the 
whole  group  of  palaces ;  and  cuneiform  inscriptions, 
in  Persian,  Susian,  and  Babylonian,  on  the  wall  above 
the  bulls  inform  us  of  the  builder  :— 

"  A  great  god  is  Ahuramazda,  who  created  this  earth,  who 
created  yonder  Heaven,  who  made  man,  who  made  delights  for  men, 
who  has  made  Xerxes  king,  the  sole  king  over  many,  the  sole  ruler 
over  many. 


54  NEW  LIGHT   ON   THE    BIBLE. 

"I  am  Xerxes  the  great  king,  the  king  of  kings,  king  of  the 
countries  which  contain  many  races,  king  henceforward  of  this  vast 
earth,  son  of  King  Darius,  the  Achsemenid. 

"  Thus  says  Xerxes  the  great  king  :  '  By  the  grace  of  Ahuramazda 
I  have  built  this  doorway.  Many  other  fair  works  in  Persia  have  I 
and  my  father  made.  By  the  grace  of  Ahuramazda  alone  have  we 
executed  these  fair  works.' 

"  Thus  says  Xerxes  the  king :  '  May  Ahuramazda  protect  me 
and  my  dominions,  and  the  works  that  I  and  my  father  have  made. 
All  these  may  Ahm-amazda  protect. '" 

Further  remains  of  the  porch  are  to  be  seen  at  a 
short  distance,  first  in  the  shape  of  two  columns  seven- 
teen yards  high,  surmounted  by  the  characteristic  Perse- 
politan  capital  ;  secondly,  in  the  bases  of  two  other 
columns ;  and  lastly,  in  two  more  piers  forming  the 
egress,  in  which  two  colossal  figures  of  bulls,  winged, 
human-headed,  and  crowned,  like  the  Assyrian  monsters 
of  Nineveh,  Khorsabad,  or  Nimroud,  are  embedded  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  figures  at  the  entry.  This 
porch  was,  no  doubt,  roofed  over  with  cedar  beams,  and 
formed  a  passage,  open  at  the  sides  and  paved  with 
large  slabs,  through  which  access  was  obtained  to  a 
courtyard  or  garden,  a  single  trace  of  which  now 
remains  in  a  square  cistern,  to  be  seen  at  a  short 
distance. 

Turning  to  the  right  on  emerging  from  the  porch, 
the  visitor  sees  before  him,  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred 
and  fifty  feet,  the  wall  of  another  terrace,  rising  eight 
feet  above  the  level  on  which  he  is  now  standing ; 
in  the  midst  of  the  wall  is  the  famous  sculptured  stair- 
case, formed  of  two  double  converging  flights  of  steps. 


THE    PALACES    OF   PERSE POLIS.  55 

The  outer  wall  of  the  staircase,  which  forms  a  triangle 
between  the  two  central  flights,  is  sculptured  with  bas- 
reliefs,  representing  a  file  of  soldiers  of  the  royal  body- 
guard, five  on  each  side,  facing  towards  the  middle; 
they  wear  long  robes  and  upright  tiaras,  and  carry 
spears  and  bows.  Before  the  sculptures  were  injured, 
the  winged  figure  of  the  god  Ahuramazda  hovered  above 
the  group.  In  each  of  the  angles  formed  between 
the  ascending  balustrades  and  the  ground,  a  lion  is  seen 
devouring  a  bull  :  doubtless  a  symbol  of  the  destroying 
power  of  the  Persian  monarchy.  The  inner  balustrade 
exhibits  a  row  of  guards  as  if  in  the  act  of  ascending 
the  stairs  ;  lotus- flowers  and  cypresses  also  enter  into 
the  decoration.  The  wall  on  each  side  of  the  central 
double  staircase — that  is  to  say,  the  space  between 
it  and  the  other  convergent  flights  to  the  right  and  left 
of  it — is  occupied  by  three  series  of  figures  one  above 
the  other,  separated  by  bands  of  rosettes.  We  here  see 
behind  a  row  of  the  Immortals,  or  picked  troops, 
officials  from  all  parts  of  the  Persian  Empire,  in  every 
variety  of  costume,  in  the  act  of  being  introduced  by 
Court  functionaries  into  the  presence  of  the  sovereign, 
for  whom  they  are  bringing  gifts  of  every  kind.  That 
Xerxes  was  the  builder  of  this  staircase,  which  has 
always  been  one  of  the  chief  wonders  of  Persepolis, 
is  attested  by  the  inscription  on  the  wall,  drawn  up, 
as  usually,  in  three  languages. 

"  A  great  god  is  Ahuramazda,  who  created  this  earth,  who 
created  yonder  Heaven  for  men,  who  has  made  Xerxes  king,  sole 
king  over  many,  sole  ruler  over  many.  .  . 


56  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  Thus  says  Xerxes,  the  great  king  :  '  By  the  grace  of  Ahura- 
mazda  I  have  constructed  this  building ;  may  Ahuramazda  protect 
me  and  my  dominions,  and  all  that  I  have  made.' " 

Mounting  one  of  the  four  flights  of  steps,  tht 
visitor  sees  before  him,  at  a  distance  of  about  fifteen 
yards,  the  far-famed  group  of  columns  which  gave  to 
the  ruins  of  Takht-i- Jemsheed  the  name  by  which  they 
were  first  known  in  Europe — namely,  Clicliel  Minar,  or 
the  Forty  Minarets.  Now,  indeed,  only  thirteen  are 
standing ;  but  originally  there  were  seventy-two  tall 
pillars,  supporting  a  roof  of  cedar,  and  forming  the 
Apodana,  or  Throne-Room  of  Xerxes,  similar  in  plan  to 
the  Apadana  of  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  at  Susa,  where  the 
inscriptions  were  found  that  supplied  us  with  this  old 
Persian  name  for  a  hall  of  the  sort.  It  is  the  word 
borrowed  by  the  Prophet  Daniel,  when  he  says,  "  And 
He  shall  plant  the  tabernacles  of  His  palace  between 
the  seas  in  the  glorious  holy  mountain."  There  were 
three  porticoes,  or  colonnades,  to  this  throne-room — 
one  on  the  north  side,  facing  the  staircase,  one  on  the 
east,  and  another  on  the  west,  each  supported  by  twelve 
columns.  The  central  hall,  nearly  fifty  yards  square, 
was  upheld  by  a  phalanx  of  thirty-six  columns.  All 
these  pillars  were  of  the  characteristic  Persepolitan 
order,  only  to  be  found  in  the  palaces  of  the  Acha?menian 
dynasty  founded  by  Cyrus,  which  ended  with  the 
conquest  of  Alexander  the  Great;  their  height  is 
sixty  feet,  or  thirteen  times  the  diameter  at  the  base, 
which  is  formed  like  a  bell,  and  sculptured  with  lotus- 
leaves;  from  this  rises  a  slender  fluted  shaft,  which 


THE   PALACES    OF   PERSEPOLIS.  S? 

terminates  in  a  composite  capital,  consisting  of  a  richly- 
moulded  bell,  above  which  is  a  lotus-flower  surmounted 
by  inverted  volutes,  which  sustain  a  double  bull's  head 
projecting  on  both  sides  to  support  the  rafters  of  cedar- 
wood.  There  can  never  have  been  doors  to  this  hall ; 
embroidered  curtains,  probably  of  Babylonian  workman- 
ship, hung  between  the  pillars,  as  they  are  described  in 
the  Book  of  Esther. 

Thirty-five  yards  behind,  or  tp  the  south  of  this 
great  lieception  Hall  of  Xerxes,  rises  the  palace  of 
Darius  Hystaspis,  standing  upon  a  platform  of  its  own, 
ten  feet  in  height.  The  summit  of  this  platform  is 
reached  by  two  sculptured  staircases,  one  of  which  is 
decorated  with  bas-reliefs  similar  to  those  of  the  larger 

o 

and  more  famous  staircase  of  Xerxes ;  the  ornaments 
of  the  other  vary  in  design.  On  ascending,  we  find  the 
remains  of  a  building  that  was  evidently  no  mere  hall 
of  audience,  like  the  Apadana  of  seventy-two  columns, 
but  was  the  actual  habitation  of  the  king;  and  that  this 
king  was  Darius  is  proved  by  a  trilingual  inscription  on 
one  of  the  doorposts,  above  a  bas-relief  which  represents 
the  sovereign  in  state,  surrounded  by  courtiers  :— 

"  Darius,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  kings,  the  king  of  the  world, 
the  son  of  Hystaspes,  built  this  house." 

Xerxes,  the  successor  of  Darius,  added  two  other 
inscriptions  on  the  staircase  and  on  a  pier  of  masonry; 
in  these,  after  the  usual  ascription  of  praise  to  Ahura- 
mazda  and  the  enumeration  of  his  own  titles,  he 
adds : — 


58  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  Thus  says  Xerxes,  the  great  king  :  '  By  the  gmce  of  A  liuramazda, 
Darius,  my  father,  erected  this  building.  May  Ahuvamazda  protect 
me  and  this  my  work,  and  the  work  of  my  father  ;  all  this  mav 
Ahuramazda  protect ! ' ': 

The  walls  of  this  palace,  undoubtedly  of  brick,  have 
entirely  disappeared ;  the  material  lias  been  pillaged  for 
the  construction  of  more  recent  towns  or  villages ;  but 
the  doorways,  window-frames,  and  corner  piers,  built  of 
the  dark  grey  marble  of  Mount  Each  met,  are  still 
standing,  and  enable  us  to  trace  out  the  plan  of  the 
edifice.  There  was  a  central  hall,  supported  by  sixteen 
columns,  and  entered  through  a  portico  of  eight 
columns ;  around  the  central  chamber  were  fourteen 
small  rooms  of  various  forms  and  dimensions.  The 
doorways  and  windows  have  projectii  g  cornices,  slightly 
hollowed  out  like  those  of  Egyptian  temples,  and  carved 
with  a  triple  row  of  lotus-leaves;  on  the  inner  sides  of 
the  doorways  and  on  the  corner  piers  are  bas-reliefs 
which  represent  the  king  in  close  combat  with  a  lion  or 
a  bull,  or  attended  by  officers  bearing  the  umbrella  and 
the  fly-flap  —  ensigns  of  royalty  that  the  Persian 
monarchs  had  borrowed,  from  Assyria.  E-ound  some  of 
the  window-frames  are  cuneiform  inscriptions  giving 
the  name  and  title  of  the  monarch  :— 

"  Darius,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  the  world,   the   king  of 
kings,  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  the  Achsemenid." 

To  the  south  of  the  palace  of  Darius,  and  in  a 
corner  of  the  terrace,  stood  the  palace  of  Artaxerxes 
Ochus,  also  raised  upon  .a  small  platform  of  its  own, 
and  identified  by  an  inscription  on  the  sculptured 


THE  PALACES  OF  PERSE TOLIS.         59 

staircase,  in  which  this  monarch  names  himself  as  the 
builder  :— 

"A  great  god  is  Ahuramazda,  who  created  this  earth,  who 
created  yonder  Heaven,  who  made  man,  who  created  delights  for 
men,  who  has  made  me,  Artaxerxes,  sole  king  over  many,  sole  ruler 
over  many. 

"  Thus  says  Ai-taxerxes,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  kings,  the 
king  of  all  countries,  the  king  of  this  world  :  '  I  am  Artaxerxes,  son 
of  Artaxerxes  the  king,  who  was  the  sou  of  Darius  the  king,  who 
was  the  son  of  Artaxerxes  the  king,  who  was  the  son  of  Xerxes  the 
king,  who  was  the  son  of  Darius  the  king,  who  was  the  son  of 
Hystaspes,  who  was  the  son  of  Arsames,  an  Achsemenid ;  this  lofty 
building  of  stone  have  I  made  for  myself.' 

"  Thus  says  Artaxerxes  the  king  :  '  May  Ahuramazda  and  the  god 
Mithras  protect  me  and  .this  land,  and  all  that  I  have  made  ! ' " 

Another  copy  of  the  same  inscription  is  to  be  found 
on  the  western  staircase  of  Darius  Hystaspis,  whose 
palace  was  thus  appropriated,  and  perhaps  restored,  by 
Artaxerxes.  Very  little  is  left  of  the  edifice  erected  by 
Ochus ;  the  chief  parts  that  remain  are  portions  of  the 
staircase  and  of  the  wall  which  surrounds  the  platform, 
besides  some  traces  of  columns.  The  scenes  represented 
in  the  bas-reliefs  of  the  staircase  seem  to  have  resembled 
those  on  the  other  monuments  of  the  kind ;  they 
exhibited  a  procession  of  officials  bearing  presents  for 
their  sovereign,  among  which  tusks  of  ivory  were  con- 
spicuous. 

To  the  east  of  the  habitation  of  Artaxerxes  Ochus 
was  the  larger  palace  of  Xerxes,  about  eighty  yards  by 
seventy  in  area,  standing  on  its  own  platform  at  the 
extremity  of  the  same  terrace.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
house  of  Darius,  we  are  enabled  to  judge  of  the  general 


60  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

plan  of  this  building  also  from  the  doorways,  window- 
frames,  and  corner  piers  that  still  remain,  although  the 
intermediate  brick-work  and  the  timber  roofing  have 
altogether  disappeared.  Two  staircases,  with  the  usual 
bas-reliefs,  conduct  the  visitor  to  a  portico,  upborne  by 
twelve  columns,  and  leading  into  a  central  hall  of 
thirty-six  columns,  on  each  side  of  which  are  small 
apartments  opening  into  it,  to  the  number  of  twelve. 
The  doorways  are  sculptured  in  the  same  fashion  as 
those  of  Darius.  An  inscription  on  the  staircase  names 
Xerxes  as  the  constructor  of  this  palace ;  it  begins  with 
the  usual  praise  of  Ahuramazda,  followed  by  the  titles 
of  the  king,  and  concludes  thus  : —  ' 

"  Thus  says  Xerxes,  the  great  king  :  '  This  that  I  have  made  here, 
and  all  that  I  have  elsewhere  made,  I  have  made  through  the  grace 
of  Ahuramazda.  May  Ahuramazda  protect  me  and  my  kingdom 
and  all  that  I  have  made  ! ' " 

Eastwards  from  the  house  of  Darius,  on  the  terrace 
which  the  visitor  first  reached,  and  therefore  on  a  lower 
level  than  the  group  of  buildings  that  has  just  been 
described,  stands  a  small  Apadana,  of  which  nothing  but 
the  bases  of  a  few  pillars  and  some  other  fragments  now 
remain.  South  of  this  is  the  great  Apadana  of  the 
Hundred  Columns.  Of  the  pillars  which  upheld 
this  vast  hall,  in  which,  perhaps,  Alexander  held  his 
banquet  on  the  fatal  night  which  ended  in  the  confla- 
gration that  ruined  these  splendid  palaces,  only  the 
bases  now  remain,  but  most  of  the  doorways,  window- 
frames,  and  piers  of  masonry  which  formed  the  corners 
are  still  in  place.  On  one  doorway  the  king  is  sculp- 


THE    PALACES    OF   PEESEPOLIS.  61 

tured  sitting  upon  his  throne  under  an  embroidered 
canopy ;  the  platform  on  which  the  throne  is  raised  is 
supported  by  three  rows  of  carved  figures,  one  above 
the  other.  On  one  of  the  piers  the  throne  is  seen  sus- 
tained by  ten  rows  of  five  doryphori,  or  soldiers  of  the 
body-guard.  In  each  case  the  winged  figure  of  the  god 
Ahuramazda  hovers  above  the  earthly  sovereign,  who 
relies  upon  his  protection.  In  other  doorways  the  king 
is  seen  in  close  combat  with  a  bull,  a  lion,  or  a  winged 
gryphon.  The  entrance  to  this  immense  hall  of  audience 
was  guarded  by  two  colossal  human-headed  bulls,  of 
which  portions  still  exist. 

Close  behind  these  palaces,  on  the  face  of  the  moun- 
tain, are  the  two  royal  tombs  alluded  to  by  Diodorus 
which  gave  rise  to  the  name  "  Royal  Mountain."  A 
sculptured  facade,  exhibiting  the  king  before  a  fire- 
altar  upon  a  platform  supported  by  several  rows  of 
figures,  leads  into  a  small  chamber  in  which  the 
sarcophagus  was  deposited.  The  spot  where  Darius 
was  buried,  now  called  Naksh-i-Kustam,  seems  also 
to  have  been  named  the  Eoyal  Mountain,  although 
situated  at  some  distance  from  the  palaces. 

We  have  now  made  the  tour  of  these  magnificent 
ruins,  which,  indeed,  form  one  of  the  finest  monuments 
of  antiquity,  and  hold  in  many  respects  an  unique 
position.  Of  the  great  palaces  of  Assyria,  buried  as 
they  are  under  mountains  of  rubbish,  little  but  the 
lower  portion  of  the  walls  is  now  to  be  traced  by 
the  excavator ;  but  at  Persepolis  we  have  the  very 
doors,  windows,  and  columns  still  standing  above 


62  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

ground,  and  in  the  same  position  as  when  first  erected. 
In  Egypt  we  have,  indeed,  vast  temples  and  tombs 
of  far  greater  antiquity  than  the  residences  of  Darius 
and  Xerxes,  hut  no  royal  palace  has  been  preserved 
to  us.  Some  of  the  Greek  temples  are  as  old  as  the 
buildings  of  the  Achsemenids,  but,  as  in  Egypt,  it 
was  the  dwellings  of  the  gods,  not  of  men,  that  were 
constructed  with  sufficient  durability  to  withstand 
the  ravages  of  time.  Only  on  the  Roman  Palatine 
do  we  see  a  group  of  imperial  habitations  which  may 
remind  us  of  the  Persian  palaces ;  but  even  there 
the  bare  brick  walls,  the  fragmentary  pavements  of 
porphyry,  and  the  broken  marble  balustrades  have  far 
less  to  teach  us  than  the  sculptured  doorways  and 
monumental  staircases  of  Persepolis. 

Very  little  is  said  of  Persepolis  in  ancient  authors  ; 
we  only  gather  that,  under  the  Achsemenian  dynasty, 
which  began  with  Cyrus,  and  ended  with  Darius 
Codomannus,  there  was  in  this  city  a  splendid  royal 
residence,  strongly  fortified,  and  containing  the  wealth 
gradually  amassed  by  the  Persian  kings.  When 
Alexander  took  the  place,  in  B.C.  330,  a  treasure  of  gold 
and  silver,  equal  in  value  to  a  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  talents  of  silver,  fell  into  his  hands,  and  the 
Macedonian  invader  was  forced  to  send  to  Susa  and 
Babylonia  for  a  sufficient  number  of  mules  and 'camels 
to  carry  off  the  booty.  Afterwards,  in  a  drunken  revel, 
or  in  revenge  for  the  ravages  of  Xerxes  in  Greece, 
Alexander  and  his  companions  set  fire  to  the  palace, 
which  was  partly  destroyed.  The  description  of  the 


THE   PALACES    OF  PERSEPOLIS.  63 

palace  given  by  Diodorus  was,  however,  sufficient  to 
enable  scholars,  after  many  controversies,  to  decide  that 
the  ruins  which  we  have  been  describing  were,  without 
doubt,  the  remains  of  the  Achsemenian  residence  ;  and 
this  was  finally  proved  when  the  cuneiform  inscriptions 
upon  the  walls  were  at  last  deciphered.  The  question 
of  the  origin  of  these  structures  was  in  former  days 
much  confused  by  the  legends  which  had  grown 
up  among  the  natives  of  the  spot  with  regard  to  the 
ruined  edifices  which  attracted  their  wonder  and  ad- 
miration from  generation  to  generation.  The  name 
of  Persepolis  was  soon  lost :  indeed,  it  may  never  have 
existed  except  in  the  mouths  of  the  Greeks,  who 
thus  spoke  of  the  city  of  the  Persians ;  during  the 
Middle  Ages  the  town  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
ruins  was  called  Istakhar.  So  the  poet  Firdusi,  in 
the  tenth  century  of  our  era,  says  that  "  Alexander 
marched  to  the  town  of  Istakhar,  and  there  placed  upon 
his  head  the  glorious  crown  of  the  Keianids "  —that 
is  to  say,  the  Achsemenids.  In  another  place  Firdusi 
speaks  of  Istakhar  as  "  the  diadem  of  the  kings  and  the 
glory  of  Persia."  The  ruined  palaces  themselves  have 
received  various  names  from  the  natives.  The  authentic 
tradition  which  preserved  the  name  Khaneh-i-Dara,  or 
House  of  Darius,  has  not  been  generally  accepted  among 
them.  The  purely  descriptive  designation  of  Chehd 
Minar,  or  the  Forty  Minarets,  seems  to  have  been 
current  in  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth,  and  seventeenth 
centuries ;  forty  is,  of  course,  a  round  number,  and  the 
name  alludes  to  the  columns  of  the  Hall  of  Xerxes,  the 


64  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

slender  and  lofty  pillars  which  at  once  strike  the  eye  of 
the  traveller  as  he  advances  across  the  plain.  But 
the  ordinary  and  constant  appellation  is  that  which  was 
indicated  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter :  namely, 
Takht-i-Jemsheed. 

Misled  by  this,  even  learned  Europeans,  before  the 
decipherment  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  have  some- 
times fancied  that  the  sculptured  scenes  might  have 
been  intended  by  builders  of  some  unknown  date  to 
represent  the  legendary  monarch,  his  court,  and  his 
army ;  and  in  this  way  they  have  failed  to  understand 
the  true  period  to  which  the  remains  belong. 

Besides  the  opinion  which  attributed  the  ruins  of 
Persepolis  to  Jemsheed,  there  were  other  legends  as 
to  their  origin.  Some  thought  that  Solomon,  who  was 
indeed  sometimes  identified  with  Jemsheed,  had  built 
these  imposing  structures ;  for  instance,  a  Persian  writer 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  who  says  : — 

"  At  Istakhar  there  is  a  very  considerable  Fire-temple ;  the 
Magians  affirm  that  this  edifice  was  a  Masjed,  or  Temple  of  Solomon, 
on  whom  be  the  peace  of  God.  I  have  been  there  and  beheld  won- 
derful structures  :  mai'ble  columns  of  great  height  and  extraordinary 
appearance,  and  on  the  summits  of  these  columns  huge  figures  carved 
in  stone;  and  this  lofty  edifice  stands  near  the  foot  of  the  mountain." 

Solomon,  whose  command  over  all  nature  is  so 
widely  celebrated  among  the  Mahometans,  is  believed 
to  have  employed  demons  to  erect  this  palace,  as  well  as 
the  Temple  of  Baalbek,  in  Syria;  and  the  king,  who 
could  transport  himself  with  ease  to  a  great  distance  in 
a  short  time,  frequently  spent  the  day  at  Baalbek  and 
the  night  at  Istakhar. 


THE   PALACES    OF   PERSEPOLIS.  65 

According  to  another  account,  found  in  a  Persian 
history,  the  ruins  of  Persepolis  were  neither  the  work  of 
man  nor  of  demons,  but  were  a  monument  of  a  terrible 
judgment  of  Grod  : — 

"The  people  of  Istakhar  were  very  wicked,  and  the  Almighty 
turned  them  into  stone  ;  so  that  even  now  we  may  behold  there  the 
forms  of  women  reposing  with  their  husbands,  of  butchers  cutting 
meat  into  pieces,  of  infants  in  their  cradles,  of  bread  in  ovens,  and 
of  many  other  things,  all  become  marble." 

The  people  upon  whom  this  miraculous  destruction 
came  are  identified  by  other  Eastern  writers  with 
the  tribe  of  Ad,  so  well  known  to  all  Mahometans 
through  the  frequent  mention  of  them  in  the  Koran ; 
they  refused  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  the  prophet  who 
was  sent  to  them,  and  accordingly  they  were  all  de- 
stroyed at  one  stroke,  and  their  deserted  city  remained 
a  witness  to  all  generations  of  the  punishment  incurred 
by  those  who  reject  the  messengers  of  Grod.  Mahomet 
made  use  of  this  story  to  warn  ai:d  terrify  those 
among  the  Arabs  who  were  inclined  to  doubt  his  own 
mission. 

To  medieval  Europe  Persia  was  even  more  of  an 
unknown  land  than  Assyria  and  Babylonia.  As  soon, 
however,  as  intercourse  took  place  between  the  ancient 
dominions  of  Cyrus  and  the  modern  world,  the  remains 
of  the  palaces  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Rachmet  were 
quickly  discovered,  because  they  lay  near  the  high  road 
from  Shiraz  to  Ispahan,  generally  traversed  by  visitors 
from  the  West  to  the  Persian  court.  Accordingly,  an 
account  of  them  is  given — the  first  on  record — by 

F 


66  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Giosafat  Barbaro,  a  Venetian  envoy  despatched  by  the 
Republic,  in  A.D.  1472,  to  the  court  of  Uzun  Cassan. 
Barbaro  had  no  idea  of  the  real  date  or  character  of  the 
Persepolitan  ruins  :  he  follows  the  legend  which  at- 
tributed them  to  Solomon  ;  but  his  -remarks  are  worth 
quoting,  on  account  of  the  priority  of  his  testimony. 

"  Near  the  town  of  Cainara  is  seen  a  circular  mountain,  which 
on  one  side  appears  to  have  been  cut  and  made  into  a  terrace,  six 
paces  high.  On  the  summit  of  this  terrace  is  a  flat  space,  and  around 
are  forty  columns,  which,  are  called  Cilminar,  which  means  in  our 
tongue  Forty  Columns,  each  of  which  is  twenty  cubits  long,  as  thick 
as  the  embrace  of  three  men  ;  some  of  them  are  ruined,  but,  to  judge 
from  that  which  can  still  be  seen,  this  was  formerly  a  beautiful 
building.  The  terrace  is  all  of  one  piece  of  rock,  and  upon  it  stand 
sculptured  figures  of  animals  as  large  as  giants,  and  above  them  is  a 
figure  like  those  by  which,  in  our  country,  we  represent  God  the 
Father,  enclosed  in  a  circle,  and  holding  a  ring  in  His  hand  ;  under- 
neath are  other  smaller  figures.  In  front  is  the  figure  of  a  man 
leaning  on  his  bow,  which  is  said  to  be  a  figure  of  Solomon.  Below 
are  many  others  which  seem  to  support  those  above  them,  arid 
among  these  is  one  who  seems  to  wear  on  his  head  a  papal  mitre, 
and  holds  up  his  open  hand,  apparently  with  the  intention  of  giving 
his  benediction  to  those  below,  who  look  up  to  him,  and  seem  to 
stand  in  a  certain  expectation  of  the  said  benediction.  Beyond  this, 
there  is  a  tall  figure  on  horseback,  apparently  that  of  a  strong  man : 
this  they  say  is  Samson,  near  whom  are  many  other  figures  dressed 
in  the  French  fashion  and  wearing  long  cloaks  ;  all  these  figures  are 
in  half  relief.  Two  days'  journey  from  this  place  there  is  a  village 
called  Thimar ;  and  two  days'  farther  off  another  village,  where  there 
is  a  tomb  in  which  they  say  the  mother  of  Solomon  was  buried. 
Over  this  is  built  an  edifice  in  the  form  of  a  chapel,  and  there  are 
Arabic  letters  upon  it,  which  say,  as  we  understand  from  the  in- 
habitants of  the  place,  Messer  Suleirnen,  which  means  in  our  tongue 
Temple  of  Solomon,  and  its  gate  looks  towards  the  East." 

The  figure  of  God  the  Father  is,  of  course,  the 
representation  of  Ahuramazda  hovering  over  his 


THE   PALACES    OF   PEBSEPOLIS.  67 

devotees,  and  that  which  appears  to  give  the  benedic- 
tion is  the  king,  surrounded  by  his  courtiers,  and  hold- 
ing up  his  hand  with  a  gesture  of  command. 

Of  all  the  Oriental  monarchs  of  any  age,  few  have 
been  better  known  to  Europe  than  Shah  Abbas  the 
Great,  who.  reigned  in  Persia  from  A. D.  1582  to  1627. 
Quite  a  group  of  Europeans  gathered  at  his  court,  and 
published  reports  of  what  they  saw  and  hoard,  either  in 
the  quality  of  ambassadors  and  political  envoys  or  of 
religious  missionaries,  or  simply  as  guests  who  enjoyed 
his  generous  hospitality.  Antonio  de  Gouvea,  Anthony 
and  Robert  Sherley,  Cartwright,  Silva  y  Figueroa,  Sir 
Thomas  Herbert,  Sir  Dodmore  Cotton,  and  Pietro  della 
Valle  are  among  the  visitors  to  Shah  Abbas  who  have 
done  most  to  acquaint  us  with  his  character  and  the 
history  of  his  reign.  Antonio  de  Grouvea  was  an 
Augustinian  friar  of  Portuguese  nationality,  who  was 
sent  in  1602  by  Philip  III.,  King  of  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal, in  company  with  some  other  friars,  partly  to 
spread  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  among  the  Persians, 
and  also  with  the  political  purpose  of  inducing  the  Shah 
to  make  war  upon  the  Turks,  those  dreaded  enemies  of 
all  the  Christian  Powers  of  Europe.  In  this  latter 
object,  at  any  rate,  the  diplomatic  friar  was  successful, 
for  Abbas  was  induced,  by  promises  of  support  from  the 
West,  to  engage  in  a  campaign  against  the  Sultan 
Mahomet,  which  seriously  weakened  the  resources  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire ;  but,  what  is  more  to  our  purpose, 
the  Portuguese  missionary  published  a  narrative  of 
his  journey  to  Ispahan,  in  which  he  announced  the 
*  2 


68  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

existence  of  tlie  palace,  or,  as  he  supposed,  the  tomb  of 
Persepolis,  recognising,  although  in  a  vague  manner, 
its  true  period ;  and,  above  all,  not  forgetting  to 
mention  the  inscriptions  in  unknown  characters  upon 
the  walls. 

"We  continued  our  journey  as  far  as  a  village  called  Chelminira, 
which  in  their  language  means  Forty  Minarets,  because  that  was 
the  number  in  the  tomb  of  an  ancient  king  which  stood  there.  .  .  . 
We  went  to  see  the  tomb  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  it  is  my  firm 
belief  that  the  mausoleum  which  Artemisia  erected  to  her  husband 
was  not  more  notable,  though  it  is  held  as  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world ;  but  the  mausoleum  has  been  destroyed  by  time,  which  seems 
to  have  no  power  against  this  monument,  which  has  also  resisted  the 
efforts  of  human  malice.  .  .  .  The  place  is  between  two  high 
ridges,  and  the  tomb  of  which  I  have  made  mention  is  at  the  foot  of 
the  northern  ridge.  Those  who  say  that  Cyrus  rebuilt  the  city  of 
Shiraz  affirm  also  that  he  built  for  himself  this  famous  tomb.  There 
are  indications  that  Ahasuerus,  or  Artaxerxes,  erected  it  for  himself, 
besides  another  near  it  which  he  made  for  Queen  Yashti ;  and  this 
opinion  is  made  more  probable  by  the  consideration  of  the  short 
distance  from  this  site  to  the  city  of  Suzis,  or  Shushan,  in  which  he 
generally  resided.  .  .  .  At  the  foot  of  the  ridge  began  two  stair- 
cases facing  one  another,  with  many  steps  made  of  stones,  of  so  great 
a  size  that  it  will  be  beyond  belief  when  I  affirm  that  some  of  them, 
when  they  were  first  hewn,  were  more  than  twenty-five  palms  in  cir- 
cumference, ten  or  twelve  broad,  and  six  or  eight  high  ;  and  of  these, 
there  were  very  many  throughout  the  whole  structure,  for  the  build- 
ing was  chiefly  composed  of  them ;  and  it  was  no  small  wonder  to 
consider  how  they  could  have  been  placed  one  upon  the  other, 
particularly  in  the  columns,  where  the  stones  were  larger  than  in 
any  other  part.  That  which  astonished  us  most  was  to  see  that 
certain  small  chapels  were  made  of  a  single  stone  :  doorway,  pavement, 
walls,  and  roof.  .  .  .  The  staircases  of  which  I  have  spoken  met  on  a 
broad  landing,  from  which  the  whole  plain  was  visible.  The  walls 
of  the  staircases  were  entirely  covered  with  figures  in  relief,  of  work- 
manship so  excellent  that  I  doubt  whether  it  could  be  surpassed;  and 
by  ascending  the  staircases  access  was  gained  to  an  extensive  terrace, 


THE    PALACES    OF   PEIiSEPOLTS.  69 

on  which  stood  the  forty  columns  which  give  their  name  to  the 
place,  each  formed,  in  spite  of  their  great  size,  of  no  more  than  three 
stones.  .  .  .  The  bases  might  Jue  thirty  palms  round,  and  on  the 
columns  were  beautifully  carved  figures.  The  porches  through  which 
the  terrace  was  entered  were  very  high  and  the  walls  very  thick  ;  at 
each  end  stood  out  figures  of  lions  and  other  fierce  animals,  carved  in 
relief  in  the  same  stone :  so  well  executed  that  they  seemed  to  be 
endeavouring  to  terrify  the  spectators.  The  likeness  of  the  king  was 
drawn  of  life-size  upon  the  porches  and  in  many  other  parts. 

"  From  this  place  was  an  ascent  to  another  much  higher,  where 
was  a  chamber  excavated  in  the  hill-side,  which  must  have  been 
intended  to  contain  the  king's  body,  although  the  natives,  imagining 
that  it  contained  a  different  treasure,  have  broken  into  it,  having 
little  respect  for  the  ancient  memory  of  him  who  constructed 
it  ... 

"  The  inscriptions — which  relate  the  foundation  of  the  edifice, 
and,  no  doubt,  also  declai-e  the  author  of  it,  although  they  remain  in 
many  parts  very  distinct,  yet  there  is  none  that  can  read  them,  for 
they  are  not  in  Persian,  nor  Arabic,  nor  Armenian,  nor  Hebrew, 
which  are  the  languages  current  in  those  parts ;  and  thus  all  helps 
to  blot  out  the  memory  of  that  which  the  ambitious  king  hoped  to 
make  eternal.  And  because  the  hardness  of  the  material  of  which 
it  is  built  still  resists  the  wear  of  time,  the  inhabitants  of  the  place, 
ill-treated  or  irritated  by  the  numbers  of  visitors  who  came  to  see 
this  wonder,  set  to  work  to  do  it  as  much  injury  as  they  could, 
taking  as  much  trouble,  perhaps,  to  deface  it  as  the  builders  had 
done  to  erect  it.  The  hard  stone  has  resisted  the  effect  of  fire  and 
steel,  but  not  without  showing  signs  of  injury." 

Probably  through  the  fact  that  Gouvea  wrote  in 
Portuguese  (a  language  never  widely  known  in  Europe), 
his  account  of  Persepolis  has  generally  been  overlooked, 
and  his  priority  as  a  discoverer  has  rarely  been  acknow- 
ledged, although  some  of  the  writers  of  his  period 
speak  of  him  as  one  of  the  most  distinguished  travellers 
of  his  age.  His  influence  with  the  Shah  was  so  great 
that  the  latter  assigned  to  him  and  to  those  who 


70  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

accompanied  him  one  of  the  disused  palaces  of  Ispahan; 
and  here  the  Auo-ustinian  friars  continued  to  reside  for 

o 

many  }<ears,  showing  hospitality  to  European  visitors, 
and  doing  what  they  could  to  make  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity  known  among  the  Mahometans.  Their 
house  is  described  as  large  enough  to  lodge  a  hundred 
persons,  and  as  containing  a  handsome  chapel,  and 
many  rooms  painted  with  blue  and  gold,  which  opened 
on  to  a  garden,  where  fountains  played  in  basins  of 
marble.  Gouvea's  narrative  of  his  travels  was,  how- 
ever, soon  superseded  by  that  of  Don  Garcia  de  Silva  y 
Figueroa,  ambassador  from  Philip  III.  of  Spain  to  Shah 
Abbas.  In  1619  Silva  addressed  a  letter  to  his  friend, 
the  Marquess  de  Bedmar,  then  residing  at  the  Court  of 
the  Spanish  Regent  of  the  Netherlands.  This  letter, 
dated  from  Ispahan,  1619,  was  printed  at  Antwerp  in 
1620 ;  it  was  quickly  translated  from  the  Latin  into 
English,  and  made  known  to  our  countrymen  by  its 
publication  in  Purchas'  Pilgrims,  in  1625.  It  contains 
the  following  passages  : — 

"  There  are  yet  remayning  most  of  those  huge  wilde  buildings  of 
the  Castle  and  Palace  of  Persepolis,  so  much  celebrated  in  the 
monuments  of  ancient  writers.  These  frames  do  the  Arabians 
and  Persians  in  their  owne  language  call  Chilminara :  which  is 
as  much  as  if  you  should  say  in  Spanish  Quarenta  Columnas,  or 
Alcoranes :  for  so  they  call  those  high  narrow  round  steeples  which 
the  Arabians  have  in  their  Mesquites.  This  rare,  yea  and  onely 
monument  of  the  World  (which  farre  exceedeth  all  the  rest  of  the 
World's  miracles  that  we  have  seen  or  heard  of),  sheweth  it  selfe  to 
them  that  come  to  this  Citie  from  the  Towne  of  Xiria,  and  standeth 
about  a  league  from  the  River  Bandamir,  in  times  past  called 
Araxis  (not  that  which  parteth  Media  from  the  greater  Armenia), 


THE  PALACES  OF  PERSEPOL1S.         71 

whereof  often  mention  is  made  by  Q.  Curtins,  Diodorus,  and 
Plutarch  :  which  Authors  doe  point  us  oute  the  situation  of  Perse- 
polis,  and  doe  almost  leade  us  unto  it  by  the  hand.  The  largenesse, 
fairnesse,  and  long-lasting  Matter  of  those  Pillars  appeareth  by 
the  twentie  which  are  yet  left  of  alike  fashion  ;  which  with  othei 
remaynders  of  those  stately  Piles  do  move  admiration  in  the  minde 
of  beholders,  and  cannot  but  with  much  labour  and  at  leisure  be 
layed  open.  But  since  it  is  your  Lordships  hap  to  live  now  at 
Venice,  where  you  may  see  some  resemblance  of  the  things  which 
I  am  about  to  write  of,  I  will  briefly  tell  you  that  most  of  the 
pictures  of  men,  that,  ingraven  in  marble,  doe  seele  the  front,  the 
sides  and  statelier  parts  of  this  building,  are  decked  with  a  very 
comely  cloathing,  and  clad  in  the  same  fashion  which  the  Venetian 
Magniticoes  goe  in  :  that  is,  Gownes  downe  to  the  heeles  with  wide 
sleeves,  with  round  flat  caps,  their  hair  spred  to  the  shoulders, 
and  notable  long  beards.  Yee  may  see  in  these  tables  some  men 
sitting  with  great  rnaiestie  in  certayne  loftier  chayres,  such  as  use 
to  bee  with  us  in  the  Quires  and  Chapter-Houses  of  Cathedrall 
Churches,  appointed  for  the  seates  of  the  chiefe  Prelates ;  the  seate 
being  supported  with  a  little  foote-stoole  neatly  made,  about  a  hand 
high.  And,  which  is  very  worthy  of  wonder  in  so  divers  dresses  of 
so  many  men  as  are  ingraven  in  these  tables,  none  cometh  neere  the 
fashion  which  is  at  this  day,  or  hath  beene  these  many  Ages  past,  in 
use  through  all  Asia.  For  though  out  of  all  Antiquitie  we  can 
gather  no  such  arguments  of  the  cloathing  of  Assyrians,  Medes,  and 
Persians,  as  we  finde  many  of  the  Greekes  and  Romanes ;  yet  it 
appeareth  sufficiently  that  they  used  garments  of  a  middle  size  for 
length,  like  the  Punike  vest  used  by  the  Turks  and  Persians  at  this 
day,  which  they  call  Aljuba,  and  these  Cavaia :  and  shashes  round 
about  their  heads,  distinguished  yet  both  by  fashion  and  colour  from 
the  Cidaris,  which  is  the  Royall  Diademe.  Yet  verily  in  all  this 
sculpture  (which,  though  it  be  ancient,  yet  shineth  as  neatly  as  if  it 
were  but  new-done)  you  can  see  no  picture  that  is  like  or  in  the 
workmanship  resembleth  any  other,  which  the  memorie  of  man  could 
yet  attaine  to  the  knowledge  of  from  any  part  of  the  World  :  so 
that  this  worke  may  seeme  to  exceede  all  Antiquities.  Now  nothing 
more  contirmeth  this  than  one  notable  Inscription  cut  in  a  Jasper 
table,  with  characters  still  so  freshe  and  faire  that  one  would  wonder 
how  it  could  scape  so  many  Ages  without  touch  of  the  least  blemish. 


72  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  Letters  themselves  are  neither  Chsildsean,  nor  Hebrew,  nor 
Greeke,  nor  Arabike,  nor  of  any  other  Nation  which  was  ever  found 
of  old,  or  at  this  day  to  be  extant.  They  are  all  three-cornered,  but 
somewhat  long,  of  the  forme  of  a  Pyramide,  or  such  a  little  Obeliske 
as  I  have  set  in  the  margin  (A)  ;  so  that  in  nothing  do  they  differ 
from  one  another  but  in  their  placing  and  situation,  yet  so  conformed 
that  they  are  wondrous  plaine,  distinct,  and  perspicuous.  What  kind 
of  building  the  whole  was  (whether  Corinthian,  lonick,  or  mixt) 
cannot  be  gathered  from  the  remaynder  of  these  ruines  :  which  is 
otherwise  in  the  old  broken  walls  at  Rome,  by  which  that  may  easily 
be  discerned.  Notwithstanding  the  wondrous  and  artificiall  exact- 
nesse  of  the  worke,  the  beautie  and  elegancy  of  it  shining  out  of  the 
proportion  and  symmetrie,  doth  dazzle  the  eyes  of  the  beholders. 
But  nothing  amazed  me  more  than  the  hardnesse  and  durablenesse  of 
these  Marbles  and  Jaspers  ;  for  in  many  places  there  are  Tables 
so  solide,  and  so  curiously  wrought  and  polished  that  ye  may  see 
your  face  in  them  as  in  a  glasse.  Besides  the  Authors  by  me 
alreadie  commended,  Arrianus  and  Justine  make  special  mention  of 
this  Palace;  and  they  report  that  Alexander  the  Great  (at  the 
instigation  of  Thai's)  did  burne  it  downe.  But  most  delicately  of  all 
doth  Diodorus  deliver  this  storie. 

"The  whole  Castle  was  encompassed  with  a  threefold  circle 
of  walls,  the  greater  part  whereof  hath  yielded  to  the  time  and 
weather.  There  stand  also  the  Sepulchres  of  their  kings,  placed  on 
the  side  of  that  hill,  at  the  foote  whereof  the  Castle  itself  is  built ; 
and  the  monuments  stand  just  so  farre  from  one  another  as  Diodorus 
reporteth.  In  a  worde,  all  doth  so  agree  with  his  discourse  of  it  that 
he  that  hath  scene  this  and  read  that  cannot  possibly  be  deceived." 

Much  attention  was  attracted  by  this  account  of 
the  ruins,  which  is  indeed  less  complete  than  a  report 
on  them  by  Pietro  della  Valle  in  a  letter  to  Mario 
Schipano,  dated  from  Shiraz,  1616,  but  not  published 
till  1650,  thirty  years  after  Silva's  epistle  to  the 
Marquess  de  Bedmar.  What  most  distinguishes 
Delia  Valle's  narrative  is  that  he  actually  gives  a  copy 
of  five  of  the  cuneiform  characters  engraved  on  the 


THE  PALACES  OF  PERSEPOLIS.         73 

walls  of  the  ruined  palaces,  and  has  the  sagacity  to 
infer  that  they  were  read  from  left  to  right ;  the  signs 
which  he  gives  us  are  part  of  the  title  of  Darius  and 
Xerxes,  which  has  now  been  interpreted  as  "  King  of 
Kings."  In  the  last  }7ear  of  Abbas  (1G%27),  Sir  Thomas 
Herbert  was  in  Persia  with  the  English  Ambassador, 
Sir  Dodmore  Cotton,  and  he  afterwards  published  an 
account  of  Chehel-minar,  with  a  copy  of  a  few  of  the 
cuneiform,  or,  as  he  calls  them,  pyramidal  characters. 
These  antiquities  had  now  excited  so  much  interest  that 
a  representation  of  them  was  greatly  desired  in  Europe. 
Sir  Thomas  Herbert  says  :— 

"  Is  it  not  greate  pity  that  some  Illustrious  Prince  or  other 
Noble  Person  valuing  rarities  has  not  ere  this  sent  some  painter  or 
other  like  artist  to  take  a  full  and  perfect  draught  of  this  so  ancient 
Mouument  1  the  rather  seeing  that  the  Inhabitants  of  Shyraz.  but 
principally  the  Vil lagers  at  Mardash  and  other  People  thereabouts, 
put  no  value  upon  it ;  but  contrarily  in  barbarous  manner  spare  not 
to  deface  and  tear  asunder  what  they  can  in  spight,  and  under  pre- 
tence of  serving  their  common  occasions.  ...  I  may  here  with 
thankfulness  acknowledge  how  that,  upon  my  proposing  it  some 
years  since  unto  that  great  Maecenas  of  antiquity,  the  late  noble 
Lord  Thomas,  Earl  of  Arundel,  he  was  so  sensible  thereof  as  to 
that  end  he  dispatched  a  Youth  thither,  whom  Mr.  Norgate  recom- 
mended to  his  Lordship  for  one  he  knew  could  both  design  and  copy 
well.  But  I  hear  he  died  by  the  way  at  or  near  Surat,  before  he 
could  reach  Persia ;  so  as  that  worthy  endeavour  became  frustrate." 

Other  travellers  visited  the  site  of  Persepolis  about 
this  time  :  for  instance,  Cartwright,  Boullaye-le-Grouz, 
Mandelslo,  Tavernier,  Thevenot,  Daulier  Peslandes ;  and 
they  all  give  more  or  less  correct  accounts  of  the 
remains,  and  express  various  opinions  about  their 


74  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

origin.  Daulier  Deslandes  is  to  be  distinguished  as 
having,  in  his  Beautez  de  la  Perse,  published  at  Paris, 
1673,  given  a  fairly  accurate  engraving  of  the  palaces 
of  Persepolis,  on  too  small  a  scale,  however,  to  allow 
the  details  to  be  seen. 

In  16G6  our  English  Royal  Society  had  issued  a 
series  of  inquiries  relative  to  the  antiquities  and  physical 
conditions  of  various  countries,  answers  to  which  were 
earnestly  desired  by  the  learned  in  the  cause  of  science. 
One  of  these  inquiries  demands  : — 

"  Whether,  there  being  already  good  Descriptions  in  Words  of 
the  Excellent  Pictures  and  Basse  Relieves  that  are  about  Persepolis 
at  Chilmenar,  yet  none  very  particular,  some  may  not  be  found 
sufficiently  skilled  in  those  parts,  that  might  be  engaged  to  make  a 
Draught  of  the  Place  and  the  Stories  there  pictured  and  carved." 

In  consequence  of  this  inquiry,  a  merchant  named 
Flower,  who  in  the  course  of  his  professional  journeys 
to  the  East  took  the  opportunity  of  paying  a  visit  to 
the  ruins,  made  a  copy  of  some  of  the  inscriptions 
there ;  but,  unfortunately,  he  was  attacked  by  disease, 
and  died  in  Syria,  and  his  papers,  communicated  to  the 
Royal  Society  in  1693,  only  gave  a  very  imperfect 
answer  to  the  question  which  that  learned  body  had 
propounded. 

In  consequence  of  the  general  desire  of  a  representa- 
tion of  Persepolis,  and  the  difficulty  of  actually  pro- 
curing one,  an  eccentric  Dutchman,  named  Struys, 
published  a  view  and  description  of  the  remains  in 
1686,  in  his  work  entitled  "  Three  Eemarkable  and 
most  Disastrous  Journeys  through  Italy,  Greece, 


THE  PALACES  OF  PERSEPOL1S.         75 

Livonia,  Muscovy,  Tartary,  Media,  Persia,  East  India, 
Japan,  and  various  other  Countries."  Some  writers 
have  gone  so  far  as  to  assert  that  Struys  was  an 
impostor,  who  never  left  the  flats  and  dykes  of  Holland  ; 
at  any  rate,  he  never  saw  Persepolis.  His  plate  repre- 
sents a  marvellous  building,  in  which  Turkish  domes 
and  classical  columns  are  combined  in  a  fashion  never 
seen  in  any  earthly  structure ;  if  he  had  even  carefully 
read  the  reports  of  his  contemporaries,  he  could  never 
have  made  such  a  blunder  as  this. 

The  first  complete  book  of  travels  in  Persia  is  the  pro- 
duction of  Chardin,  who  was  in  the  East  between  1664 
and  1677 ;  in  his  famous  work  he  not  only  published  a 
full  description  of  Chehel-minar,  but  also  gave  numerous 
plates,  representing  the  ruins  and  some  of  the  inscrip- 
tions. Chardin,  however,  would  not  accept  the  view  of 
Silva  y  Figueroa  and  Delia  Valle  that  the  remains  are 
part  of  a  palace  of  Darius ;  the  spot  would,  he  fancies, 
have  been  too  much  exposed  to  the  heat  to  have  been 
chosen  as  a  dwelling-place ;  it  was  probably  a  temple, 
he  thinks,  especially  as  the  bas-reliefs  appear  to  have  a 
religious  character.  As  for  the  date  of  the  edifice,  he 
adopts  the  Persian  tradition,  which  ascribes  it  to 
Jemsheed,  accepting  the  latter  as  an  historical  person- 
age, who  must  have  lived  about  the  time  of  Jacob.  So 
do  the  doctors  differ  !  An  equally  remote  antiquity  was 
ascribed  to  Chehel-minar  by  Engelbert  Kaempfer,  a 
German  physician  and  good  Persian  scholar,  who  re- 
turned from  the  East  in  1694,  and  wrote  a  Latin  work 
on  Persia  and  other  parts  of  Asia,  in  which  he  gives 


76  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

plates  of  the  ruins  and  of  some  of  the  inscriptions,  to 
which  he  was  the  first  to  assign  the  name  of  cuneiform. 
He  says : — 

"  The  southern  wall  [of  the  terrace]  .  .  .  exhibits  an  inscription 
in  strange  characters,  which  have  the  form  of  small  wedges  (cuneoli), 
such  as  are  not  to  be  found  in  any  other  part  of  the  world,  except  in 
the  chambers  of  the  same  palace  ;  nor  can  they  be  understood  at 
present  by  any  human  being." 

An  illustrious  successor  of  Chardin  and  Kaempfer 
was  the  Dutchman  Cornells  de  Bruin,  who  started  for 
the  East  in  1701,  and  on  his  return  gave  to  the  world  a 
full  account  of  his  journeys,  including  plates  drawn  by 
himself  of  Persepolis  and  of  some  of  the  inscriptions. 
De  Bruin  rejects  the  theories  of  the  two  former  travellers 
on  the  origin  of  the  remains,  saying  : — 

"  I  think  we  may  conclude  that  the  ruins  of  Chilminar  are  those 
of  the  famous  palace  of  Persepolis  which  was  destroyed  by  Alexander 
the  Great." 

In  justice  to  our  countrymen,  a  work  must  here  be 
mentioned  which  was  published  in  London  in  1739.  It 
is  "  Persepolis  Illustrata,"  and  contains  twenty-one 
engravings  on  copper-plates  of  the  palaces,  accompanied 
by  a  description  of  them,  and  a  lithographed  account  of 
the  ancient  authors  who  have  written  upon  them. 
Considering  the  period,  we  must  allow  that  the  engrav- 
ings do  credit  to  the  artists,  but  they  are  incomplete  and 
full  of  mistakes  in  details.  A  fairly  correct  view  is  taken 
of  the  date  of  the  buildings. 

All  former  travellers  were  eclipsed  by  Niebuhr 
(17G5),  whose  drawings  and  copies  of  the  ruins  and 


THE  PALACES  OF  PERSEPOLIS.         77 

inscriptions  henceforward  formed  the  material  that 
scholars  could  best  rely  upon,  and  whose  opinions  upon 
all  the  subjects  of  which  he  treats  are  accurate  and 
scholarly.  No  new  information  was  supplied  by  the 
Count  Ferrieres  Sauveboeuf  (1782),  who  saw  little  to 
admire  in  the  Achsemenian  palace,  or  by  Francklin,  who 
journeyed  from  Bengal  to  Persia  in  1786,  and  is  in- 
clined to  accept  the  native  legends  about  the  origin 
of  the  remains.  One  remark  of  Francklin  is  worth 
recording,  as  it  has  been  partly  justified  by  events  :  — 

"  I  should  presume  that  until  the  ancient  characters  on  the  walls 
can  be  decyphered,  no  account  of  this  place,  either  Grecian  or 
Persian,  or  any  other,  can  be  depended  upon  as  genuine  or  authentic, 
as  they  are  unquestionably  of  an  antiquity  far  beyond  the  records  of 
any  language  now  known  in  the  world." 

At  this  time,  then,  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  learned  world  of  Europe  possessed  a  fairly 
complete  knowledge  of  the  ruins  of  Persepolis  and  of 
the  inscriptions  upon  them.  The  time  was  come  for 
the  decipherer  to  arise.  Since  this  date  other  travellers 
have  visited  Persia,  and  have  corrected  and  added  to 
the  information  already  possessed.  Sir  Robert  Ker 
Porter,  especially,  published  copies  of  the  inscriptions 
more  correct  even  than  those  of  Niebuhr ;  Morier,  who 
accompanied  the  embassy  of  Sir  Harford  Jones,  added 
much  useful  information ;  Sir  William  Ouseley,  who 
accompanied  his  brother's  embassy  in  1810,  through  his 
great  knowledge  of  Persian,  supplied  us  with  many 
interesting  facts ;  and  Buckingham  must  not  be 
omitted.  Then  came  the  French  expedition  sent  out 


78  NEW  LIGHT   ON    THE   BIBLE. 

by  Louis  Philippe  in  1839,  during  which  MM.  Flandin 
and  Coste  made  the  drawings  which  they  published 
in  their  magnificent  work.  Lastly,  M.  Dieulafoy  and 
Dr.  Stolze  have  completed  our  knowledge  by  their 
works  on  the  "  Ancient  Art  of  Persia"  and  on 
"Persepolis." 


CHAPTER    III. 

DECIPHERMENT    OF   THE    OLD    PERSIAN    INSCRIPTIONS 

WHEN  it  was  made  known  in  Europe  that  inscriptions 
in  an  unknown  character  had  been  found  at  the  ruins  of 
Chehel-minar,  identified  by  some  with  the  ancient  palace 
of  the  Achsemenian  monarchs  at  Persepolis,  much  in- 
terest was  excited  among  the  learned,  but  the  idea  of 
interpreting  the  mysterious  sentences  was  generally 
given  up  as  hopeless.  The  native  Persians  believed 
that  the  writing  on  the  walls  contained  the  key  which, 
if  discovered,  would  open  the  door  to  the  treasures 
buried  beneath ;  for  all  ancient  ruins  are  supposed  in 
the  East  to  contain  hidden  wealth.  It  must  not  be 
omitted,  however,  that  some  of  the  natives  seem  to  have 
made  attempts  to  decipher  the  writing,  and  to  have 
preserved  a  correct  notion  of  its  nature  and  origin  ;  for 
in  a  Persian  manuscript,  the  contents  of  which  were 
communicated  by  Lord  Teignmouth  to  Sir  William 
Ouseley  in  1798,  there  is  a  list  of  cuneiform  characters, 
many  of  them,  it  is  true,  of  imaginary  form,  but  all 
composed  of  wedges  in  different  positions,  and  some 
actually  found  at  Persepolis ;  and  the  modern  Persian 
letters  supposed  to  correspond  to  them  are  added 
beneath.  The  whole  scheme  is  absolutely  inaccurate, 


80  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

but  it  is  worth  quoting,  in  order  to  show  that  an 
attempt  at  the  decipherment  of  their  ancient  characters 
had  been  made  by  the  modern  Persians ;  and  still  more 
on  account  of  the  title  placed  at  the  head  of  the  list : 
"The  Alphabet  of  the  Zoroastrians,  or  Fire- worshippers, 
which  was  introduced  in  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of 
Gushtasp."*  Now,  Gushtasp,  or  Hystaspes,  is  generally 
understood  to  represent  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes,  in 
whose  time  (there  are  many  reasons  for  believing)  the 
cuneiform  characters  were  actually  brought  into  use  in 
Persia.  No  other  attempt  to  explain  the  inscriptions 
has  been  made,  so  far  as  it  is  known,  by  the  natives 
of  the  country. 

The  first  European  who  noticed  the  inscriptions  was 
Antonio  de  Gouvea,  the  Portuguese  friar,  who,  as  we 
have  seen  in  the  last  chapter,  correctly  surmised  that 
they  contained  records  of  the  builder  of  the  edifice,  who 
wished  in  this  way  to  preserve  the  memory  of  his  name. 
But  many  travellers  preferred  less  obvious  and  more 
far-fetched  theories  of  the  meaning  of  the  lines.  Sir 
Thomas  Herbert  (1626)  seems  to  have  thought  that 
they  might  have  been  engraved  by  order  of  the  prophet 
Daniel  himself:  — 

"  There  is  [on  the  wall  of  the  terrace]  a  Jasper  or  Marble  Table, 
about  twenty  feet  from  the  pavement,  wherein  are  inscribed  about 
twenty  lines  of  character,  every  line  being  a  yard  and  a  half  broad,  or 
thereabouts ;  all  of  them  very  perfect  to  the  eye,  and  the  stone 
so  well  polished  that  it  still  preserves  its  lustre.  The  characters  are 
of  a  strange  and  unusual  shape,  neither  like  Letters  nor  Hiero- 
glyphicks ;  yea,  so  far  from  our  deciphering  that  we  could  not  so 

*•  Sir  W.  Ouseley  in  "  Oriental  Collections,"  Jan.— March,  1798,  p.  57. 


THE    OLD    PERSIAN    INSCRIPTIONS.  81 

much  as  make  any  positive  judgment  whether  they  were  words 
or  characters ;  albeit,  I  rather  incline  to  the  first,  and  that  they 
comprehend  words  or  syllables,  as  in  Brachyography  or  Short-writing 
we  familiarly  practise.  Nor  indeed  could  we  judge  whether  the 
Writing  were  from  the  right  hand  to  the  left,  according  to  the 
Chaldee  and  usual  manner  of  these  Oriental  Countreys ;  or  from  the 
left  hand  to  the  right,  as  the  Greeks,  Romans,  and  other  Nations 
imitating  their  alphabets  have  accustomed.  Nevertheless  by  the 
posture  and  tendency  of  some  of  the  characters  (which  consist  of 
several  magnitudes)  it  may  be  supposed  that  this  writing  was  rather 
from  the  left  hand  to  the  right,  as  the  Armenian  and  Indian  do 
at  this  day.  And  concerning  the  Characters,  albeit  I  have  since 
compared  them  with  the  twelve  several  alphabets  in  Postellus,  and 
after  that  with  those  eight  and  fifty  different  Alphabets  I  find  in 
Purchas,  which  indeed  comprehend  all  or  most  of  the  various  forms 
of  lettei\s  that  either  now  are  or  at  any  time  have  been  in  use 
through  the  greater  part  of  the  Universe,  I  could  not  perceive  that 
these  had  the  least  resemblance  or  coherence  with  any  of  them, 
which  is  very  strange,  and  certainly  renders  it  the  greater  curiosity  ; 
and,  therefore,  well  worthy  the  scrutiny  of  some  ingenious  Persons 
that  delight  themselves  in  this  dark  and  difficult  art  or  exercise 
of  deciphering.  For  how  obscure  soever  these  seemed  to  us,  without 
doubt  they  were  at  some  time  understood,  and  peradventure  by  Daniel, 
who  probably  might  be  the  surveyor  and  instruct  the  Architector  of 
this  Palace,  as  he  was  of  those  memorable  Buildings  at  Shushan  and 
Ecbatan  ;  for  it  is  very  likely  that  this  structure  was  raised  by 
Astyages  or  his  Grandson,  Cyrus,  and  it  is  acknowledged  that  this 
great  Prophet  (who  likewise  was  a  Civil  Officer  in  highest  trust  and 
repute  during  those  great  revolutions  of  State  under  the  mighty 
Monarchs  Nebuchodonosor,  Belshazzar,  Astyages,  Darius,  and  Cyrus) 
had  his  mysterious  characters.  So  as  how  incommunicable  soever 
these  Characters  be  to  us  (for  they  bear  the  resemblance  of  pyramids 
inverted  or  with  bases  upwards,  Triangles  or  Deltas),  yet  doubtless 
in  the  Age  they  were  engraven  they  were  both  legible  and  intelli- 
gible, and  it  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  they  were  there  placed  either  to 
amuse  or  to  delude  the  spectators ;  for  it  cannot  be  denied  but  that 
the  Persians  in  those  primitive  times  had  Letters  peculiar  to  them- 
selves which  differed  from  those  of  all  other  Nations.  However, 
I  have  thought  fit  to  insert  a  few  of  these  for  better  demonstration, 
O 


82  NEW   LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

which,  nevertheless,  whiles  they  cannot  be  read,  will  in  all  pro- 
bability, like  the  Mene  Tekel,  without  the  help  of  a  Daniel,  hardly  be 
interpreted."  * 

Mandelslo  (1630)  appears  to  believe  that  the  in- 
scriptions are  talismans,  and  conceal  secrets  which  time 
will  disclose. 

At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  although 
the  accounts  of  travellers  showed  the  existence  of  many 
inscriptions  of  considerable  length  among  the  ruins  of 
Chehel-minar,  the  only  copies  that  had  reached  Europe 
were  five  characters  published  by  Delia  Valle  in  1650, 
three  lines  very  inaccurately  given  by  Sir  Thomas 
Herbert,  and  two  equally  inaccurate  lines  printed  from 
Flower's  copy  in  the  ".  Philosophical  Transactions  "  of 
June,  1693.  This  was  all  that  the  learned  Dr.  Hyde, 
who  occupied  two  chairs  at  Oxford — as  liegius  Professor 
of  Hebrew  and  Laudian  Professor  of  Arabic — had  seen 
when,  in  1700,  he  published  his  opinion  that  the 
cuneiform  or  pyramidal  figures  engraved  upon  the 
walls  of  Persepolis  were  not  writing,  but  simply  an 
ornamental  device,  introduced  by  the  architect  as  part 
of  the  decoration  of  the  building.  He  explains  himself 
thus  :— 

"  There  are  some  who  think  it  necessary  to  suppose  that  these 
pyramidal  figures  express  letters,  of  which  words  are  composed.  In 
my  opinion,  however,  they  are  not  letters,  and  were  not  intended  for 
letters  ;  but  they  were  engraved  simply  for  the  sake  of  ornament,  by 
a  mere  whim  of  the  original  architect  of  the  palace  when  it  was  first 
erected,  which  induced  him  to  try  how  many  different  figures  he 

*  "  Some  Yeares  Travels  into  divers  parts  of  Africa  and  Asia  the 
Great,"  etc.  p.  141  ff. 


THE    OLD   PERSIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.  83 

could  compose  by  arranging  strokes  of  the  same  form  in  a  variety  of 
positions."  * 

This  theory  of  Hyde's,  which  was  certainly  an  easy 
mode  of  solving  the  difficult  problem  of  the  meaning 
of  the  cuneiform  characters,  resembles  the  view  of  the 
Abbe  Tandeau  on  the  nature  of  the  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphics, expounded  in  a  work  entitled  "  A  Dissertation 
on  the  Hieroglyphic  Writing,"  and  published  about  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  According  to  the 
Abbe,  the  figures  with  which  the  obelisks  and  temples 
on  the  Nile  are  covered  are  not  a  form  of  writing,  as 
had  generally  been  supposed,  but  simply  ornamental 
designs  carved  by  the  architect  upon  the  granite,  with 
no  other  purpose  than  that  of  decoration ;  it  was  only 
in  later  years  that  the  priests,  anxious  to  find  a  new 
means  of  support  for  their  religion,  interpreted  the 
various  figures  as  containing  the  mysteries  of  their 
creed,  which  were  thus  concealed  beneath  symbolic 
characters  of  immemorial  antiquity. 

A  view  similar  to  those  of  Hyde  and  Tandeau  was, 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  and  therefore  on  the  eve 
of  the  actual  decipherment  of  the  inscriptions,  ex- 
pounded by  Samuel  Witte,  a  professor  in  the  University 
of  Rostock,  who  maintained  that  we  have  at  Persepolis 
elementary  designs  of  flowers  in  bouquets  and  gar- 
lands : — 

"  It  is  impossible  to  say  exactly  what  sort  of  flowers  are  here 
intended  to  be  represented ;  this,  however,  is  not  necessary  :  it  is 
enough  to  state  the  general  principle.  Yet,  in  order  to  show  the 

*  "  Historia  Religionis  veterum  Persarum,"  etc.,  1700,  p.  526. 
G2 


84  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

possibility  that  flowers  are  here  designed,  we  may  compare  those 
that  have  a  funnel-shaped  blossom,  such  as  the  wild  convolvulus,  the 
larger  and  smaller  pansies,  the  common  tobacco  with  tongue-shaped 
petals,  and  even  the  different  kinds  of  carnation." 

Kaempfer,  whose  work  was  published  in  1712,  was 
the  first  to  be  struck  by  a  superficial  resemblance  of  the 
cuneiform  character  to  the  Chinese — an  idea  which 
occurred  to  many  after  his  time.  The  resemblance 
consists  chiefly  in  the  form  of  the  wedge-shaped  strokes, 
thick  at  one  end  and  pointed  at  the  other,  which  is  in 
reality  an  accidental  rather  than  an  essential  feature  of 
the  two  systems  of  writing ;  the  Chinese  character  is 
written  or  painted  with  a  brush,  and  the  cuneiform  was 
generally  impressed  on  clay  with  a  stick ;  hence  the 
shape  of  the  strokes.  It  has  been  remarked  that 
certain  Greek  inscriptions  have  a  cuneiform  appearance, 
due  to  the  greater  facility  of  engraving  strokes  of  the 
shape  described.  Kaempfer  says  :— 

"  On  the  southern  wall  of  the  terrace  is  an  inscription  in  strange 
characters,  having  the  form  of  wedges,  such  as  are  not  to  be  found 
elsewhere  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  except  in  the  chambers  of  this 
palace,  nor  at  present  can  they  be  understood  by  any  mortal.  We 
do  not  know  what  the  language  is,  or  whether  the  writing  is 
alphabetic,  like  that  of  Europe,  or  expresses  syllabic  sounds  like  that 
of  the  Japanese,  or  whole  ideas  like  the  Chinese.  I  conjecture  that 
the  last  is  the  case,  and  that  the  wedges,  according  to  their  different 
position  and  arrangement,  denote  different  things ;  and  therefore 
that  it  is  immaterial  for  the  reader  to  know  what  was  the  idiom  of 
the  writer.  The  fact  that  there  are  sometimes  very  few  wedges  in 
one  character,  while  the  strokes  in  the  Chinese  characters  are  far 
more  numerous,  does  not  alter  my  opinion.  For  here  there  is  no 
need  of  so  many  wedges  as  there  is  of  strokes  in  the  Chinese  ;  for 
the  Chinese  strokes  are  without  head  or  tail,  or,  if  they  have  them 


THE    OLD    PERSIAN   INSCRIPTIONS.  85 

for  the  sake  of  calligraphy,  may  drop  them  without  alteration  of  the 
sense,  and  therefore  in  one  position  can  only  have  one  meaning; 
whereas  our  wedges  in  the  same  position,  if  they  are  inverted,  may 
have  two  meanings,  and  therefore  may  serve  their  purpose  in  less 
profusion  and  with  less  complication  of  forms."  * 

After  Kaempfer,  Christoph  Gottlieb  von  Murr 
(1777),  who  had  received  accurate  copies  of  the  in- 
scriptions at  Persepolis  from  the  hand  of  Niebuhr 
himself,  was  led  astray  by  the  supposed  analogy  of  the 
Chinese  characters,  and  wasted  much  time  in  studying 
this  point,  as  he  himself  tells  us  : — 

"Have  the  characters  any  analogy  with  the  Chinese?  If  I 
wished  to  make  a  show  of  my  ingenuity,  I  could  talk  to  you  much 
about  this  analogy.  But  I  already  regret  the  long  hours  that  I  have 
wasted  in  comparing  the  combinations  of  strokes  in  thes>e  characters 
with  the  Chinese,  which  also  consist  of  strokes  and  crooked  lines, 
simply  that  I  might  not  seem  to  have  neglected  any  chance  of  inter- 
pretation. I  also  compared  them,  with  respect  to  their  combinations, 
with  the  oldest  script  of  the  Chang  dynasty  (1,000  years  before 
Christ);  and  with  the  ancient  characters  called  Ku  wen  and 
Tschoang  tsee."  f 

The  same  fancied  resemblance  between  the  Chinese 
and  Persepolitan  scripts  attracted  Easpe,  who  published 
a  "Catalogue  of  Ancient  Gems"  in  1791.  Easpe  was 
not  an  Oriental  scholar,  and  seems  to  have  derived  his 
knowledge  of  Chinese  from  a  brief  intercourse  with  Dr. 
Morton,  the  Librarian  of  the  British  Museum  ;  but  he 
nevertheless  asserts  that  the  cuneiform  inscriptions 
on  certain  cylindrical  seals  "  perfectly  resemble  "  the 
Chinese  character.  This  is  the  more  remarkable  because 

*  "  Amoenitates  Exoticae,"  p.  331. 

•f  "Journal  zur  Kunstgeschichte,"  etc.,  p.  137. 


86  NEW  LIGHT   ON   THE   BIBLE. 

Raspe  ridicules  at  the  same  time  those  who  tried  to 
explain  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt  by  the  Chinese 
characters,  although  this  latter  theory  is  scarcely  less 
fanciful  than  his  own. 

Other  incipient,  but  equally  unsuccessful,  attempts 
to  explain  the  cuneiform  character  were  made  by  those 
who  were  struck  by  the  apparent  resemblance  of  the 
Runic  script  or  of  the  Ogham  writing  of  Ireland.  Of 
the  former,  Court  de  Gebelin  is  the  chief,  but  Andrew 
Celsius,  the  Upsala  professor,  and  the  Baron  de  Bock 
adopted  the  same  hypothesis ;  none  of  them,  however, 
brought  this  view  to  any  result.  The  hopes  thus 
expressed  by  Bock  were  never  realised  : — 

"  The  language  of  the  Persepolitan  inscriptions  is  not  entirely 
lost ;  on  the  contrary,  the  new  discoveries  of  M.  Court  de  Gebelin 
ought  to  make  us  hope  that  the  interpretation  of  it  will  soon  be 
discovered."* 

In  1752  the  Count  de  Caylus  published  an  in- 
scription which  proved  afterwards  of  some  importance 
in  the  history  of  the  decipherment ;  it  was  engraved  on 
an  alabaster  vase,  brought  from  Egypt,  and  placed  in 
the  Cabinet  of  Antiquities  attached  to  the  Royal 
Library,  where  it  may  still  be  seen.  The  vase  exhibits 
some  hieroglyphic  characters  in  a  cartouche,  together 
with  three  lines  of  writing  similar  to  that  found  at 
Persepolis.  Caylus  concludes  from  these  facts  that  the 
Persepolitan  script  was  of  Egyptian  origin  ;  but,  of 
course,  he  was  totally  unable  to  interpret  a  single  word. 

By  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century   there  was 

•  "  Essai  BUI  1'Histoire  du  Sabeisme,''  1788,  p.  62. 


THE    OLD   PERSIAN    INSCRIPTIONS.  87 

considerable  material  for  the  decipherers  to  work  upon ; 
Kaempfer,  Chardin,  and  De  Bruin  had  published  in- 
scriptions varying  in  length  and  accuracy ;  and,  lastly, 
Niebuhr  had  given  copies  to  the  world  that  obviously 
far  excelled  all  former  efforts  in  completeness  and 
correctness.  Niebuhr's  conscientious  and  enthusiastic 
efforts  to  obtain  true  representations  of  the  buildings 
and  inscriptions  of  Persepolis  are  thus  described  by 
his  son  : — 

"These  ruins,  inscriptions,  and  bas-reliefs  had  been  sufficiently 
well  represented  by  three  former  travellers  to  arouse  the  attention  of 
Niebuhr  as  the  most  important  monument  of  the  East.  The  number 
,of  inscriptions  and  sculptures  made  him  hope  that  an  interpreter 
might  be  found  who,  by  comparing  them,  would  be  able  to  under- 
stand them,  if  once  correct  copies  of  them  were  placed  before  him ; 
and  Niebuhr's  keen  eye  told  him  how  insufficient  the  drawings 
hitherto  published  were.  Nothing  out  of  all  that  he  saw  in  Asia 
attracted  him  so  powerfully  in  anticipation  ;  he  could  not  rest  until 
he  had  reached  Persepolis,  and  the  last  night  saw  him  sleepless. 
The  remembrance  of  these  ruins  remained  ineffaceable  all  his  life 
long  ;  they  were  for  him  the  gem  of  all  that  he  had  viewed. 

"Three  weeks  and  a  half  he  remained  beneath  them,  in  the  midst 
of  a  wilderness  ;  and  during  this  time  he  worked  without  interrup- 
tion at  the  measurement  and  drawing  of  the  ruins.  The  inscriptions 
are  placed  high  up  on  the  walls,  and  were  clearly  to  be  distinguished 
only  when  the  sun  shone  upon  them  ;  as  in  this  atmosphere  the 
hard,  originally  polished  marble  is  not  weather-worn,  his  eyes, 
already  affected  by  the  uninterrupted  work,  were  dangerously  in- 
named  ;  and  this,  as  well  as  the  death  of  his  Armenian  servant, 
obliged  him,  much  against  his  will,  to  leave  the  old  Persian  sanctuary 
before  he  had  completed  his  drawings." 

It  was  Niebuhr's  copies,  then,  that  were  studied  by 
the  three  men  who,  at  the  end  of  the  last  century 
and  beginning  of  the  present,  undertook  serious  work 


88  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE, 

upon  the  decipherment  of  the  Persepolitan  inscriptions. 
Let  us  see  how  the  way  had  been  prepared  for  them. 

The  ancient  language  in  which  the  sacred  books 
of  Persia  were  written  had  recently  been  interpreted. 
The  history  of  this  event  forms  one  of  the  romantic 
pages  in  the  dull  annals  of  Oriental  philology.  The  hero 
of  the  story  is  Abraham  Hyacinthe  Anquetil-Duperron, 
a  Parisian,  born  in  1731,  and  destined  by  his  parents 
for  the  priesthood.  After  passing  through  two  semi- 
naries, however,  the  young  man  found  that  his  taste 
for  theology  was  so  much  weaker  than  his  passion  for 
Eastern  languages,  that  he  gave  himself  up  entirely  to 
the  latter ;  and  his  assiduity  at  the  lloyal  Library  of 
Paris  attracted  the  notice  of  the  Abbe  Sallier,  keeper 
of  the  manuscripts,  who  succeeded  in  procuring  for 
him  a  small  salary  in  the  capacity  of  student  of  Arabic 
and  Persian  Soon  after  this,  some  odd  leaves  of  a 
Zend  manuscript  fell  into  his  hands,  and  the  desire  to 
find  the  key  to  the  interpretation  of  the  sacred  language 
of  the  Parsees  became  so  strong  within  him,  that  he 
determined,  by  some  means  or  other,  to  make  his  way 
to  India,  and  to  study  under  the  native  priests.  At 
this  time  the  difficulties  between  the  French  and 
English  in  India  were  beginning,  and  a  military  ex- 
pedition was  about  to  start  from  Havre  ;  accordingly 
the  young  Anquetil  enlisted  as  a  private  soldier,  and 
set  out  with  his  knapsack  on  his  back.  His  patrons, 
however,  heard  of  this,  and  hastened  to  the  minister, 
who,  affected  by  the  zeal  for  knowledge  of  which  the 
young  man  had  given  such  unquestionable  proof, 


THE  OLD   PERSIAN   INSCRIPTIONS.  89 

granted  him  a  free  passage,  with  a  seat  at  the  captain's 
table,  and  appointed  a  salary  to  be  paid  him  upon  his 
arrival  in  India.  The  ship  reached  Pondicherry  after 
a  passage  of  nine  months,  and  Anquetil  set  out  to 
Chandernagore  with  the  intention  of  studying  Sanscrit. 
Here  he  fell  ill,  and  immediately  after  his  recovery  the 
place  was  besieged  and  taken  by  the  English.  This 
occurrence  obliged  Anquetil  to  return  to  Pondicherry, 
and  he  made  the  journey  on  foot,  without  money  or 
baggage,  across  a  most  dangerous  country.  On  arriving 
at  Pondicherry,  after  an  eventful  march  of  a  hundred 
days,  the  undaunted  student  embarked  for  Surat. 
There  he  succeeded  in  overcoming  the  fanaticism  and 
scruples  of  some  Parsee  priests,  and  acquired  from  them 
a  sufficient  knowledge  of  Zend  to  translate  a  great 
part  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  their  holy  scriptures.  In 
1762  Anquetil  was  back  in  Paris,  where  he  obtained 
a  small  post  at  the  Royal  Library,  and  employed 
himself  in  publishing  the  text  and  translation  of  the 
Zend-Avesta,  hitherto  entirely  unknown  in  Europe ; 
these  appeared  in  1771.  Later,  he  gave  up  his  post, 
and  his  subsequent  life  may  be  best  described  in  his 
own  words,  prefixed  to  his  edition  of  the  "  Upanishads  ": 

"  Anquetil-Duperron  to  the  sages  of  India  salutation  !  You  will 
not  disdain,  O  sages,  the  writings  of  a  man  who  is,  so  to  speak,  of 
your  own  caste.  Hear,  I  pray  you,  what  is  my  manner  of  life.  My 
daily  food  is  composed  of  a  little  milk  or  cheese  and  water  from  the 
well,  the  whole  costing  about  four  French  sous,  or  the  twelfth  part 
of  an  Indian  rupee ;  I  pass  the  winter  without  a  fire  ;  the  use  of  a 
mattress  or  of  sheets  is  unknown  to  me ;  my  linen  is  never  changed 
or  washed ;  without  income,  without  salary,  without  position,  I  live 


00  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

upon  my  literary  work,  and  am  well  enough  for  my  age,  in  spite  of 
my  former  labours  ;  I  have  neither  wife,  nor  children,  nor  servant ; 
destitute  of  all  the  good  things  of  this  world,  and  free  from  all  its 
ties,  yet  I  am  conscious  of  a  love  for  all  men,  and  especially  good 
men.  In  this  condition,  waging  war  against  my  senses,  I  despise  the 
seductions  of  the  world,  and  I  overcome,  them  ;  I  am  near  the  term 
of  my  existence ;  I  aspire  keenly  and  constantly  towards  the 
Supreme  and  Perfect  Being  ;  and  I  await  with  calmness  the  dissolu- 
tion of  my  mortal  frame." 

This  was  the  single-minded,  if  somewhat  slovenly, 
scholar  who  first  made  known  to  the  European  world 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Parsees  ;  and  it  was  seen  at 
once  that  the  Zend  language  in  which  these  were 
written,  perhaps  in  the  time  of  the  successors  of  Cyrus, 
might,  as  the  oldest  Persian  language  known,  be  that 
in  which  the  inscriptions  of  Persepolis  were  drawn  up. 
Tychsen,  a  member  of  the  University  of  Rostock, 
adopted  this  view  in  the  first  serious  essay  towards  the 
decipherment  of  the  unknown  characters  that  had  yet 
appeared :  namely,  his  "  Lucubration  on  the  Cuneiform 
Inscriptions  of  Persepolis,"  published  in  1798.  This 
essay  was,  however,  a  failure.  In  the  first  place,  the 
author  was  led  astray  by  the  notion,  put  forth  by 
certain  travellers  and  scholars,  that  the  ruins  of 
Chehel-minar  could  not  be  the  palace  of  the  AchsB- 
menian  sovereigns,  because  this  was  burnt  down  by 
Alexander ;  while  the  existing  remains  show  no  trace 
of  fire.  Tychsen  forgot  or  was  ignorant  that  great 
portions  of  the  palaces,  especially  the  immense  Hall, 
or  Apadana,  of  the  Hundred  Columns,  have  almost 
entirely  disappeared,  and  may  well  have  been  burned 


THE    OLD   PERSIAN   INSCRIPTIONS.  91 

down,  that  the  cedar  roofing  has  vanished  in  all  the 
buildings,  and  that  Plutarch  expressly  states  that 
the  original  historians  of  Alexander  agree  that  the 
latter  caused  the  fire  to  be  quickly  extinguished  before  it 
had  spread  to  all  the  structures.  Tychsen  also  remarks 
that  the  palace  of  Persepolis  was  built  by  Egyptian 
workmen  whom  Cambyses  had  brought  from  Egypt, 
while  the  existing  remains  are  not  of  Egyptian  archi- 
tecture. Here  he  would  be  contradicted  by  modern 
archa3ologists,  who  consider  that  there  is  a  considerable 
trace  of  Egyptian  influence,  especially  in  the  forms  of 
the  columns.  Misled  by  these  and  other  considerations, 
Tychsen  declares  that  the  ruins  of  Chehel-minar  cannot 
be  older  than  the  Parthian  dynasty  (B.C.  246-A.D.  227); 
accordingly  he  actually  interprets  two  short  inscrip- 
tions in  his  own  way  with  the  help  of  the  Zend,  as 
referring  to  the  founder  of  this  dynasty,  Arsaces. 
This  is  what  he  makes  out  of  four  lines  written  above 
the  figure  of  a  king  : — 

"  This  is  the  king,  this  is  Arsaces  the  great,  this  is  Arsaces,  this 
is  Arsaces,  the  perfect  and  the  king,  this  is  Arsaces  the  divine,  the 
pious,  the  admirable  hero." 

This  happens  to  be  the  very  inscription  in  which 
Grotefend  afterwards  correctly  discovered  the  names 
of  Xerxes  and  Darius.  As  for  the  means  by  which 
Tychsen  found  out,  as  he  thought,  the  value  of  the 
cuneiform  letters,  he  does  not  take  us  fully  into  his 
confidence  on  this  point,  but  he  observes  that  some  of 
the  letters  resemble  the  Greek  in  form.  Tychsen's 
interpretation  in  any  case  was  an  entire  failure  ;  not 


92  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

a  single  scholar  accepted  it  as  a  solution  of  the 
problem.  A  more  scholarly  but  less  ambitious  "  Essay 
upon  the  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  at  Persepolis "  was 
published  by  Dr.  Frederick  Mimter,  of  Copenhagen,  in 
1800.  Mimter  at  once  rejects  all  Tychsen's  sugges- 
tions, and  contents  himself  with  preparing  the  way  for 
subsequent  decipherment.  He  says  much  about  the 
date  of  the  ruins  and  inscriptions,  which  he  refers,  after 
a  full  discussion,  to  the  time  of  the  Achajmenids.  One 
point  alone,  he  says,  would  be  enough  to  refute 
Tychsen's  view  that  the  Parthians  were  the  founders 
of  Chehel-minar,  and  that  is  the  appearance  of  Ethio- 
pians among  the  tribute-bearers  on  the  sculptured  stair- 
case ;  not  a  foot  of  land  was  ever  possessed  in  Africa 
by  the  rulers  of  Persia  except  between  the  reigns  of 
Cambyses  and  Darius  Codomannus.  As  to  the  actual 
decipherment,  Hunter  accepts  Delia  Valle's  opinion, 
that  the  lines  are  to  be  read  from  left  to  right,  because 
characters  found  in  one  place  at  the  right  end  of 
a  line  occur  elsewhere  in  a  similar  inscription  at  the 
left  end  of  the  next  line ;  and  he  adopts  Niebuhr's 
discovery  that  the  inscriptions  of  Persepolis  are  drawn 
up  in  three  different  forms  of  character  and,  without 
doubt,  in  three  different  languages.  The  kind  of  in- 
scription which  always  appears  first  is  much  simpler 
than  the  others,  and  the  words  are  divided  from  one 
another  by  an  oblique  stroke.  Miinter  was  the  first 
who  announced  this  last  discovery.  This  simple  kind 
of  inscription  is  evidently  composed  of  alphabetic  cha- 
racters, to  judge  from  the  small  number  of  them  which 


THE    OLD   PERSIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.  93 

are  found :  namely,  no  more  than  forty-eight ;  from  the 
number  which  go  to  make  up  one  word ;  and  from  the 
frequency  with  which  they  occur,  even  in  the  same 
word.  The  two  other  kinds  of  inscription  are  probably 
written  in  syllabic  characters,  or  characters  expressing 
a  complete  idea,  like  the  Chinese.  The  first  and 
simplest  kind  of  inscription  is,  without  doubt,  written 
in  the  native  Persian  language.  There  are  many  cases 
in  antiquity  of  inscriptions  in  two  or  more  languages, 
set  .up  by  the  Acha3menian  monarchs  and  others. 
Miinter  tried  to  ascertain  the  value  of  a  few  of  the 
alphabetic  characters,  especially  the  vowels,  which  he 
rightly  considers  must  be  those  that  occur  most 
frequently,  but  his  efforts  remained  without  result. 

Besides  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  there  were  others 
in  Persia  which  had  recently  been  attracting  the  atten- 
tion of  scholars.  These  were  written  in  the  Pehlvi 
character,  and  accompanied  sculptures  of  the  Sassanian 
period  (A.D.  227-641)  ;  the  principal  examples  were 
found  at  the  tombs  of  Naksh-i-Rustam.  In  the  last 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  great  Arabist, 
Silvestre  de  Sacy,  succeeded  in  deciphering  the  Sas- 
sanian inscriptions ;  they  contained  the  name  and  titles 
of  the  monarch  whose  effigy  was  carved  beneath,  and 
generally  ran  in  this  fashion  : — 

"N.,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  kings,   the  king  of  Iran  and 
Aniran,  son  of  N.,  the  great  king,  etc." 

This  was  a  discovery  which  contained  suggestions 
for  those  who  were  occupying  themselves  with  the 
attempt  to  interpret  the  more  ancient  characters. 


94  NEW    LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  year  1802  marks  an  epoch  in  the  decipherment 
of  the  cuneiform  characters.  On  September  1 8th  of 
that  year  the  Gottingische  gelehrte  Anzcigen  announced 
that  George  Frederick  Grotefend — then  studying  at  the 
University  of  Gottingen— 

"  had  been  led  by  certain  historical  pre-suppositions,  and  also  by 
the  analogy  of  the  Sassanian  inscriptions,  to  discover  in  the  shorter 
cuneiform  inscriptions  of  Persepolis,  written  in  the  first  and  simplest 
of  the  three  forms  of  character,  which  he  had  examined  with  this 

purpose  in  view,  the  names  and  titles  of  Darius  and  Xerxes." 

• 

Oddly  enough,  however,  the  essay  in  which  Grote- 
fend explained  the  method  by  which  he  had  made  this 
startling  discovery  was  never  published  ;  it  was  only 
in  the  writings  of  other  authors  that  he  described  the 
steps  by  which  he  had  been  led  to  so  important  a 
result.  In  the  next  year  Silvestre  de  Sacy,  the  de- 
cipherer of  the  Sassanian  inscriptions,  gave  a  full 
account  of  Grotefend's  work  in  a  letter  published  in 
the  Magasin  Encyclopedique  \  and  in  1805  an  account 
in  Grotefend's  own  words  was  given  to  the  world  at  the 
end  of  the  first  volume  of  his  friend  Heeren's  Ideas  on 
the  Politics  and  Trade  of  the  Foremost  Nations  of  the  Ancient 
World.  As  this  was  the  first  step  towards  a  complete 
interpretation  of  the  Persian  inscriptions  in  the  cunei- 
form character,  we  give  a  short  account  of  it. 

Grotefend  was  the  son  of  a  shoemaker  of  Mi'mden- 
on-the-Weser,  and  had  entered  the  University  of  Got- 
tingen in  1795,  for  the  purpose  of  studying  theology 
and  philology.  He  soon  showed  an  aptitude  for 
dealing  with  obscure  portions  of  science,  and  the  most 


THE    OLD    PERSIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.  95 

difficult  problems  were  precisely  those  which  allured 
him.  In  1802,  his  friend  Fiorillo,  the  librarian,  sug- 
gested that  Grotefend  should  make  an  effort  to  decipher 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  Persepolis,  then  the 
object  of  so  much  interest,  and  provided  him  with 
all  the  books  bearing  on  the  subject.  The  attempt 
was  the  more  daring  because  Grotefend's  studies  had 
not  lain  in  the  direction  of  Oriental  philology ;  on  the 
contrary,  the  future  professor  of  classical  literature  was 
not  acquainted  with  a  single  Eastern  language  ;  but  this 
did  not  hinder  him  from  setting  bravely  to  work.  He 
chose  for  his  first  attempt  two  short  trilingual  inscrip- 
tions, published  by  Niebuhr,  and  naturally  selected  the 
first  and  simplest  of  the  three  versions  in  each  case, 
believing,  with  Miinter,  that  it  was  written  in  alphabetic 
characters,  that  the  words  were  divided  by  oblique 
strokes,  and  that  it  was  composed  in  the  Persian 
language.  The  two  inscriptions  are  found  over  the 
heads  of  sculptured  figures  of  kings  ;  therefore  Tychsen 
had  concluded  that  they  contained  the  names  and  titles 
of  the  monarchs  here  represented.  A  certain  word 
occurred  several  times  in  both,  and  Miinter  had  con- 
jectured that  this  meant  "  king."  Other  words  were 
placed  near  to  one  another  in  both  inscriptions,  but  in 
different  relative  positions  ;  therefore  Grotefend,  re- 
membering the  formulae  on  the  Sassanian  monuments,, 
came  very  rapidly  to  the  conclusion  that  the  inscrip- 
tions ran  in  this  form,  the  names  varying  in  each  case  : — 

"  N-,  the  great  (?)  king,  the  king  of  kings,  the  son  of  N.  [the 
king].     .     .     ." 


96  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Then  came  the  question  :  Who  conld  the  kings  be, 
and  what  names  were  to  be  supplied  here  ?  Keeren's 
history  and  Hunter's  essay  convinced  Grotefend  that 
the  palaces  and  inscriptions  of  Persepolis  were  of  the 
time  of  the  Achsemenian  dynasty  ;  the  choice  of  names 
was,  therefore,  not  very  great.  Cyrus  and  Cambyses 
were  rejected  because  the  names  of  the  father  and  son 
in  the  inscription  did  not  begin  with  the  same  letter, 
and,  moreover,  the  first  of  these  two  names  would  be 
too  short.  Artaxerxes  was  too  long  a  word.  Darius  and 
Xerxes  alone  remained  ;  and  these  appeared  to  fit  so 
well  into  the  characters  that  little  doubt  could  remain 
of  the  correctness  of  the  inference.  Besides,  in  one  of 
the  inscriptions,  the  title  of  king  did  not  appear 
after  the  name  of  the  father,  and  this  at  once  coin- 
cided with  the  statement  of  the  Greek  historians 
that  Hystaspes,  the  father  of  Darius,  was  not  himself 
king. 

For  the  actual  Persian  names  Grotefend  had  before 
him  the  Greek  Dareios — which  Strabo  asserts  to  be  an 
altered  form — and  the  Hebrew  Daryavesh  ;  the  Greek 
Xerxes,  corresponding  to  the  Hebrew  Akhashverosh, 
which  is  given  by  the  Septuagint  as  Assoueros,*  by  the 
Vulgate  as  Assuerus,  and  by  our  Authorised  Version  as 
Ahasuerus  ;  and  for  Hystaspes  he  had  the  modern 
Persian  form,  Gushtasp.  Accordingly,  being  careful  to 
give  the  same  value  to  the  same  letter  in  all  cases,  he 
read  the  names : — 

*  I.e.,  in  Ezra  and  Daniel.    In  Esther  the  LXX.  have  Artaxerxes. 


THE    OLD    PERSIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.  97 

Kh-sh-h-e  r-sh-e  -  Xerxes,  or  Akhashverosh. 
D-a-r-h-e-u-sh  =  Dareios  or  Daryavesh. 
G-o-sh-t-a-s-p  =  Hystaspes. 

and  translated  the  inscriptions  : — 

"  Xerxes  the  mighty  king,  king  of  kings,  son  of  Darius,  the 
king.  .  .  ." 

"  Darius  the  mighty  king,  king  of  kings  .  .  .  son  of 
Hystaspes.  .  .  ."  * 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  are  several  letters  common 
to  the  three  names,  or  to  two  of  them,  which  were 
sufficient  to  prove  the  exactness  of  the  whole.  Twelve 
letters  had,  in  fact,  been  now  identified  out  of  the  forty- 
eight  in  the  Persian  alphabet.  Many  of  Grotefend's 
results  were  afterwards  repudiated,  but  these  twelve 
letters  have  remained  as  a  permanent  acquisition  of 
science  since  his  time,  and  have  proved  to  be  a  sufficient 
basis  for  further  researches  by  competent  scholars. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  Grotefend's  discovery 
met  with  no  opposition.  It  was  warmly  received  by 
many  scholars,  such  as  De  Sacy  and  the  aged  Anquetil- 
Duperron  himself ;  Sir  William  Ouseley  and  Sir  Robert 
Ker  Porter  both  expressed  their  admiration  of  the  sagacity 
which  led  to  so  satisfactory  a  result,  and  their  hopes 
that  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  a  complete  interpreta- 
tion ;  but  Volney  denounced  the  decipherment  as  resting 
on  forms  of  names  which  were  probably  incorrect ;  and 
in  Germany  many  voices  were  raised  against  a  discovery 
which  was  said  to  have  been  made  by  blind  chance. 

Moreover,  although  Grotefend  had  done  much,  he 

*  See  above,  pp.  57  and  58. 
H 


98  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

had  only  made  a  beginning  ;  but  lie  fancied  he  could 
do  more  than  this.  He  tried  to  decipher  the  whole  of 
the  two  inscriptions,  and  fell  into  many  errors.  He 
imagined  that  all  the  vowels  would  be  expressed  in  the 
Persian  cuneiform  writing;  yet  this  is  not  so;  for,  as  in 
the  Indian  alphabets,  the  short  a  is  not  written,  but  is 
inherent  in  every  consonant,  unless  another  vowel  is  sup- 
plied ;  this  mistake,  of  course,  prevented  all  progress. 
He  attempted  to  discover  the  old  Persian  words  from 
the  inaccurate  Zend  vocabularies  of  Anquetil-Duperron, 
and  made  a  complete  fiasco  in  every  case.  The  real 
result  of  these  labours  was  that  the  way  was  pointed 
out  for  other  scholars  to  follow  ;  the  date  of  the  in- 
scriptions and  of  the  palaces  of  Persepolis  were  put 
beyond  a  doubt ;  the  Persian  history,  as  given  us  by 
Herodotus,  had  received  a  certain  confirmation ;  the 
native  forms  of  the  names  Darius  and  Xerxes  were 
shown  to  correspond  closely  with  those  preserved  in 
the  Biblical  books,  and  the  Ahasuerus  of  the  Book  of 
Esther  was  now  finally  identified. 

In  1822  Grotefend's  decipherment  received  an  un- 
expected support.  The  Cabinet  of  Antiquities  at  the 
Royal  Library  of  Paris  contained  an  alabaster  vase, 
procured  in  Egypt,  with  an  inscription  in  hierogly- 
phics and  in  the  three  kinds  of  cuneiform  character 
found  at  Persepolis  ;  it  will  be  remembered  that  this 
vase  was  published  by  the  Count  de  Caylus  in  1752. 
At  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  speaking,  which 
indeed  seems  to  be  the  age  of  decipherments,  Cham- 
pollion  was  engaged  in  studying  and  interpreting  the 


TUB    OLD   PERSIAN   INSCRIPTIONS.  99 

hieroglyphics  of  Egypt,  and  had  made  much  progress 
in  this  new  branch  of  science.  It  occurred  to  him  to 
suggest  to  the  Abbe  Saint-Martin,  a  well-known 
Orientalist,  who  was  occupying  himself  with  the  criti- 
cism of  Grotefend's  work,  that  they  should  study  this 
vase  together,  and  the  result  of  this  joint  examination 
was  that  the  inscriptions  proved  to  contain  the  name  of 
King  Xerxes  in  the  two  forms  of  writing  in  use  at  his 
time  in  Egypt  and  in  Persia. 

Persian  Cuneiform  :  Kh-sh-e-a-r-sh-a. 
Egyptian  Hieroglyphics  :  Kh-sh-e-a-r-sh-a. 

The  hieroglyphics  thus  bore  a  useful  testimony  to 
the  correctness  of  the  interpretation  of  the  cuneiform 
character.  It  was  the  same  Abbe  Saint-Martin  who  sug- 
gested that  the  name  of  the  father  of  Darius  should  be 
read  as  Vishtasp,  according  to  the  oldest  Zend  form, 
instead  of  Goshtasp,  the  form  which  Grotefend  had 
adopted. 

In  1826  a  Danish  scholar,  Rask,  who  travelled  to 
India  to  pursue  his  studies  in  Zend,  and  to  collect  Zend 
MSS.,  incidentally  remarked,  through  his  knowledge 
of  Zend  grammar,  that  two  letters  which  occurred  in 
the  termination  of  the  genitive  plural,  "  king  of  kings," 
should  be  n  and  m,  instead  of  ch  and  o,  as  read  by 
Grotefend.  This  discovery  was  at  once  confirmed  by 
the  fact  that  it  enabled  another  word  applied  in  these 
same  inscriptions  as  an  epithet  to  Darius  and  Xerxes 
to  be  read  as  "  AcliaBmenid." 

In  1836  two  treatises,  by  Lassen  of  Bonn  and 
H  2 


100  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Burnouf  of  Paris,  corrected  many  of  the  remaining 
mistakes  of  Grotefend,  and  nearly  completed  the  de- 
cipherment of  the  old  Persian  alphabet.  These  two 
writers  were  profound  students  of  Zend,  especially  the 
latter,  who  had  been  enabled  to  make  great  advances 
on  the  road  opened  by  Anquetil-Duperron,  and  whose 
Commentary  on  the  Yasna  marked  a  new  stage  in  the 
progress  of  Zend  studies.  Lassen,  accepting  much  of 
Grotefend's  work,  took  as  the  starting-point  of  his  new 
decipherments  an  inscription  on  the  terrace  of  Perse- 
polis,  published  by  Niebuhr,  which,  as  he  inferred  from 
the  letters  which  he  already  knew,  contained  a  number 
of  geographical  names,  the  appellations  of  the  peoples 
who,  as  represented  on  the  sculptured  staircase,  came 
to  pay  tribute  to  the  King  of  Persia :  such  a  list,  in 
fact,  as  Darius  had  inscribed  on  the  pillars  by  the 
Bosphorus ;  and  by  comparing  with  these  names  the 
lists  of  nations  subject  to  the  Persians  given  us  by 
Herodotus  and  Strabo,  he  found  out  almost  all  the 
letters  not  yet  correctly  discovered  by  Grotefend.  The 
inscription  which  Lassen  selected  is  now  finally  trans- 
lated as  follows  : — 

"  I  am  Darius  the  great  king,  king  of  kings,  king  of  these  many 
regions,  son  of  Hystaspes,  the  Achsemenid. 

"  Thus  says  Darius  the  king  :  '  By  the  grace  of  Ahuramazda  these 
are  the  lands  that  I  rule  with  my  Persian  host,  that  feared  me  and 
brought  me  tribute :  the  inhabitants  of  Susiana,  the  Medes,  the 
Babylonians,  the  Arabs,  the  Assyrians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Cappa- 
docians,  the  Sparda,  the  Greeks  of  the  mainland  and  of  the  islands ; 
and  these  lands  in  the  East,  the  Sagartians,  the  Parthians,  the  Zaraka, 
Aria,  Bactria,  Sogdiana,  Chorasmia,  the  Sattagydes,  Arachosia,  India, 
Gandcvra,  the  Saka,  and  the  Maka.'  " 


THE    OLD   PERSIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.  101 

It  will  easily  be  understood  how  by  taking  the 
twelve  letters  discovered  by  Grotefend,  and  trying-  to 
make  out  with  their  help  the  names  of  the  nations 
mentioned  by  Herodotus  and  Strabo,  Lassen,  with  his 
knowledge  of  the  forms  of  Sanscrit  and  Zend,  was  able 
to  discover  many  new  letters  of  the  old  Persian  alphabet. 

Burnouf  worked  upon  two  inscriptions  of  a  different 
sort,  lately  copied  on  Mount  Elvend,  near  Hamadan, 
the  ancient  Ecbatana,  in  Media,  by  the  unfortunate 
Dr.  Schulz,  who  was  murdered  on  his  way  home.  It 
had  been  supposed  by  the  natives  that  if  any  man  could 
find  the  key  to  the  interpretation  of  these  mysterious 
characters  on  the  rock,  the  mountain  would  be  shaken 
from  the  top  to  the  bottom,  and  an  immense  treasure 
would  be  disclosed  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  all  this 
took  place  when  Burnouf  published  his  version,  which 
simply  contains  the  name  and  titles  of  Darius  and 
Xerxes,  with  the  ascription  of  praise  to  Ahuramazda, 
such  as  we  have  seen  on  the  walls  of  Persepolis.  In 
a  work  like  the  present  it  would  be  of  no  use  to 
examine  every  step  which  these  decipherers  made,  and 
the  methods,  often  intelligible  only  to  philologists,  by 
which  they  formed  their  inferences.  Burnouf's  own 
description  of  the  general  character  of  his  method  is 
as  follows : — 

"  There  is  only  one  scientific  method  for  the  determination  of  an 
unknown  character :  all  the  words  in  which  it  occurs  must  be 
collected  and  compared,  and  the  values  of  the  alphabet  not  yet 
represented  by  known  characters  [i.e.,  through  Grotefend's  work] 
must  be  applied  to  it  one  after  the  other,  until  meanings  which  suit 
all  the  cases  are  obtained." 


102  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

One  great  result  of  the  labours  of  Lassen  and 
Burnouf  was  the  discovery  that  the  old  Persian  lan- 
guage of  the  time  of  Darius  and  Xerxes  was  by  no 
means  identical  with  the  Zend,  as  earlier  decipherers 
had  supposed,  but  stood  in  the  relation  of  a  sister 
dialect  to  the  sacred  language  of  the  Parsees.  The 
work  of  the  two  great  scholars  was  soon  subjected  to 
fruitful  criticism  by  various  Orientalists  ;  Beer  corrected 
three  false  values  given  to  letters  of  the  old  Persian 
alphabet ;  Jacquet  discovered  two  mistakes  of  the  same 
sort ;  much  was  done  towards  the  interpretation  of  the 
language  and  the  explanation  of  the  grammatical  forms 
by  Holtzmann  and  Benfey.  Since  Niebuhr  new 
material  has  been  given  to  decipherers  in  the  fresh 
inscriptions  copied  by  Ker  Porter,  Ilich,  Schuiz, 
Westergaard,  and  Loftus. 

But  the  most  important  work  was  done  by  our  own 
countryman.  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  had  begun  the 
study  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  in  1835,  while 
living  in  the  East,  and  he  appears  to  have  worked  at 
first  quite  independently  upon  them ;  he  had  heard 
rumours  of  Grotefend's  discoveries,  but  no  details ;  and 
in  his  examination  of  the  tablets  of  Elvend,  near 
Hamadan,  found  the  names  of  Hystaspes,  Darius,  and 
Xerxes,  without  any  assistance  from  the  labours  of  the 
Hanoverian  professor.*  In  1837  he  copied  for  the 
first  time  the  great  inscription  on  the  rock  of  Behistun, 
described  by  Otter  and  Ker  Porter.  Meanwhile,  he 
had  an  opportunity  of  comparing  the  work  of  other 

*  Journal  of  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  Yol.  X.,  p.  4. 


THE    BEHISTUN    11OCK. 


104  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    B1B1.E 

European  scholars  with  his  own,  by  studying  the 
memoirs  of  Burnouf  and  Lassen.  In  1838  he  received 
Burnouf's  Commentary  on  the  Yasna,  of  which  he  says  : — 

"  To  this  work  I  owe  in  a  great  measure  the  success  of  mv 
translations ;  for,  although  I  conjecture  the  Zend  to  be  a  later 
language  than  that  of  the  inscriptions,  upon  the  debris  of  which  it 
was  indeed  probably  refined  and  systematized,  yet  I  believe  it  to 
approach  nearer  to  the  Persian  of  the  ante-Alexandrian  ages  than 
to  any  other  dialect  of  the  family,  except  the  Vedic  Sanskrit,  that 
is  available  to  modern  research.  At  the  same  time,  also,  that  I 
acquired  through  the  luminous  critique  of  M.  Burnouf  an  insight 
into  the  peculiarities  of  Zend  expression,  and  by  this  means  obtained 
a  general  knowledge  of  the  grammatical  structure  of  the  language  of 
the  inscriptions,  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  procure  copies  of  the 
Persepolitan  tablets  which  had  been  published  by  Niebuhr,  Le  Brun, 
and  Porter,  and  which  had  hitherto  formed  the  chief  basis  of 
continental  study."  * 

In  1847  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  published  the  great 
inscription  of  Behistun,  nearly  two  hundred  lines, 
which  had  for  so  many  years  been  the  object  of  his 
studies,  and  thus  supplied  large  additional  material 
for  students  of  the  old  Persian  language ;  the  edition 
was  accompanied  by  a  translation.  Since  that  time 
little  more  has  been  done.  M.  Oppert  explained  a 
few  characters  that  were  still  unknown,  and  he  and 
Herr  Spiegel  have  added  to  the  accuracy  of  the  in- 
terpretations, and  to  the  explanation  of  the  grammatical 
forms.  The  inscriptions  of  the  Acha3inenian  kings  of 
Persia  in  the  palaces  of  Persepolis,  on  the  tomb  of 
Naksh-i-Kustam,  on  the  rock  of  Elvend,  on  the  palace 
of  Susa,  and  on  the  monument  of  Suez,  have  all  been 
deciphered  and  translated. 

*  Journal  of  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  Vol.  X.,  p.  8,  1847. 


CHAPTER    IY. 

THE     DECIPHERMENT    OF    THE    ASSYRIAN     AND     BABYLONIAN 
INSCRIPTIONS. 

IT  was  Niebuhr,  as  we  have  seen,  whose  accurate  eye 
first  detected  the  three  different  systems  of  cuneiform 
writing  of  which  the  inscriptions  at  Persepolis  consist, 
and  which  we  now  know  to  be  the  Persian,  Susian, 
and  Babylonian  versions  of  the  same  text,  which  Darius 
and  Xerxes  thus  made  known  to  the  principal  "nations 
and  languages  "  of  their  empire.  It  was  long,  however, 
before  it  was  discovered  that  the  third  of  these  systems 
was  that  of  the  Babylonians.  Pietro  della  Valle  had 
brought  home  to  Italy  bricks  from  the  ruins  of 
Babylon  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
but  the  characters  stamped  upon  these  bricks  do  not 
seem  to  have  occupied  his  attention,  nor  that  of 
Kircher,  who  received  one  of  these  bricks  for  his 
museum  in  Rome.  Kaempfer  published  one  of  the 
Babylonian  inscriptions  at  Persepolis  in  1712,  but  so 
carelessly  tHt  no  profit  was  derived  from  it.  The  first 
traveller  who  remarked  the  inscriptions  on  the  bricks  of 
Babylon  was  the  Father  Emmanuel  de  Saint  Albert, 
already  mentioned  in  Chapter  I.,  whose  report  provided 


106  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

D'Anville  with  the  material  for  his  memoir  on  the 
position  of  Babylon  in  1755.  Then  came  Niebuhr, 
who  observed  many  inscribed  clay  tablets  and  bricks 
among  the  ruins  near  Hillah,  but  did  not  identify  the 
writing  on  them  with  the  third  system  employed  at 
Persepolis.  The  Abbe  Beauchamp  (1785)  particularly 
noticed  the  inscriptions  on  the  bricks  of  Babylon,  and 
sent  some  specimens  of  the  bricks  to  Paris,  where  they 
were  stored  in  the  National  Library,  the  keeper  of  which, 
Millin,  published  some  of  the  inscriptions,  and  had 
plaster  casts  of  them  taken  and  sent  to  various  scholars 
of  Europe, 

The  East  India  Company,  always  an  enlightened 
body,  had  been  aroused  by  the  reports  of  the  recent 
identification  of  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  and  of  the 
inscriptions  in  unknown  characters  which  had  been 
found  among  them.  Consequently,  in  a  public  letter 
to  Bombay,  dated  October  18th,  1797,  they  declare  that 

"  Being  always  desirous  to  lend  their  assistance  to  those  who  may  be 
employed  in  the  elucidation  of  Oriental  antiquities,  and  being  in- 
formed that  near  the  town  of  Hillah,  on  the  River  Euphrates,  there 
exist  the  remains  of  a  very  large  and  magnificent  city,  supposed  to 
be  Babylon  ;  and  that  the  bricks  of  which  those  ruins  are  composed, 
are  remarkable  for  containing  on  an  indented  scroll  or  label,  appar- 
ently a  distich,  in  characters  totally  different  from  any  now  made 
use  of  in  the  East ; " 

they  have  decided  to  direct  the  Governor  of  Bombay 

"  to  give  orders  to  their  resident  at  Bassorah  to  procure  from  thence 
ten  or  a  dozen  of  the  bricks,  and  to  transmit  them,  carefully  packed 
up,  as  early  as  possible  to  Bombay,  that  they  might  be  thence 
forwarded  to  them  in  one  of  theiv  ships  sailing  for  England." 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    107 

Here  we  have  the  beginning  of  the  taste  for 
collecting  Babylonian  antiquities  in  England  which 
has  finally  brought  into  existence  the  unequalled 
galleries  of  the  Assyrian  Department  of  the  British 
Museum.  Hager,  in  1801,  published  the  inscription 
upon  these  bricks ;  it  contains  the  name  and  titles  of 
Nebuchadnezzar :—  . 

"  I  am  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  maintainer  of  the 
temples  of  Bit-Saggil  and  Bit-Zida ;  princely  son  of  Nabopolassar, 
king  of  Babylon." 

But,  of  course,  the  inscription  was  not  read  or  trans- 
lated till  long  after.  It  is  found  with  slight  variations 
on  the  thousands  of  bricks  dug  up  among  the  ruins  of 
Babylon,  and  employed  to  build  modern  houses  at 
Hillah  and  elsewhere. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Andre  Michaux,  a 
botanist,  visited  Mesopotamia  in  pursuit  of  his  studies, 
and  found  near  the  ruins  of  Ctesiphon  a  polished  piece  of 
grey  limestone  marble,  carved  with  figures  of  monstrous 
animals,  and  engraved  with  characters  similar  to  those 
which  had  been  remarked  on  the  Babylonian  bricks,  and 
in  some  ways  resembling  those  of  the  now  well-known  in- 
scriptions at  Persepolis.  On  his  return  to  France,  Michaux 
presented  this  monument  to  the  Cabinet  des  Antiques  of 
the  Nation al  Library,  the  keeper  of  which,  the  learned 
Millin,  published  a  full  account  of  it  in  1802.  The 
Caillou  Michaux,  as  it  was  called,  was  henceforth, 
through  its  publication,  one  of  the  principal  examples 
of  the  Babylonian  writing  in  Europe ;  it  formed  one  of 
the  chief  problems  for  Oriental  philologists  to  solve.  But 


108  NEW   LIGHT    ON    TEE    BIBLE 

now,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  there 
were  a  certain  number  of  cuneiform  inscriptions  in  every 
museum  of  Europe,  consisting  of  inscribed  bricks  and 
cylindrical  seals  of  haematite  or  carnelian,  with  characters 
engraved  upon  them. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  Miinter, 
Tychsen,  and  Grotefend  were  busying  themselves  with 
the  attempt  to  decipher  the  inscriptions  at  Persepolis,  as 
published  by  Niebuhr  ;  and  it  occurred  to  Lichtenstein 
to  study  another  monument  in  cuneiform  characters 
apparently  similar  to  those  of  Persia.  He  took  the 
Caillou  Michaux  as  the  object  of  his  studies.  But 
Lichtenstein  had  no  definite  process  to  follow,  such  as 
that  which  led  his  colleagues  to  fruitful  results  ;  he 
seems  to  have  thought  that  inspiration  might  take  the 
place  of  scientific  method.  He  was  like  Alastor  in  the 
Egyptian  temples  : — 

"  Among  the  ruined  temples  there, 
Stupendous  columns,  arid  wild  images 
Of  more  than  man,  where  marble  demons  watch 
The  zodiac's  brazen  mystery,  and  dead  men 
Hang  their  mute  thoughts  on  the  mute  walls  around, 
He  lingered,  poring  on  memorials 
Of  the  world's  youth  ;  through  the  long  burning  day 
Gazed  on  those  speechless  shapes ;  nor  when  the  moon 
Filled  the  mysterious  halls  -with  floating  shades 
Suspended  he  that  task,  but  ever  gazed 
And  gazed,  till  meaning  on  his  vacant  mind 
Flashed  like  strong  inspiration,  and  he  saw 
The  thrilling  secrets  of  the  birth  of  time."  * 

Shelley  does  not  tell  us  what  were  the  results  of 
inspired  decipherment   of  the  hieroglyphics, 

t  Shelley,  "Alwtor,"  118-129, 


,^\\%^~  ,x 

'       J/\       --'.<-,-  -iO"  V"-''  '••  r£     -    C\f 

iM^-'^^y  •  V  ""**T-     -o**"i. -^  —=y4.  V- 


j 


I'-^fS  K<  *    Lit Vri=ri 

^S,-^   ^Til      ^— ^S- 
I^TSf^^SlH-^ 


THE    "  CAILLOU    MIOIAtTX. 


110  NEW   LIGHT    ON    TILE    BIBLE. 

but  they  could  not  have  been  more  erroneous  than 
Lichtenstein's  explanation  of  the  Caillou  Michaux.  The 
latter  conceives  that  the  Babylonian  characters  inscribed 
on  this  and  other  monuments  are  a  variety  of  the  Arabic 
character,  and  that,  therefore,  none  of  these  inscriptions 
are  older  than  the  seventh  century  of  our  era.  The 
Caillou  Michaux 

"  contains  a  discourse  addressed  by  the  priest  of  the  temple  of  the 
god  of  death  to  the  women,  attired  in  mourning  garments,  who 
assembled  on  the  day  of  commemoration  of  all  souls  at  the  tombs  of 
their  departed  relations,  in  order  to  give  themselves  up  to  transports  of 
grief  ;  he  exhorts  them  in  this  discourse  to  moderate  their  sorrow,  to 
await  with  confidence  the  consolations  of  the  deity,  to  cultivate  purity 
of  conduct,  and  to  occupy  themselves  with  their  household  duties." 

This  summary,  followed  by  a  full  translation,  was 
seriously  offered  by  Lichtenstein  as  the  true  interpreta- 
tion of  a  monument  which  has  since  proved  to  be  a 
boundary  stone,  containing  a  legal  conveyance  of  land, 
of  the  twelfth  century  before  Christ.  As  Lichtenstein 
did  not  explain  the  process  by  which  he  arrived  at  his 
interpretation,  it  was  impossible  to  refute  him  at  the 
time  ;  but  no  scholar  accepted  his  statements  as  if  they 
had  been  proved. 

Grotefend,  who  by  his  happy  discovery  of  the  names 
of  Xerxes,  Darius,  and  Hystaspes,  had  opened  the  way 
for  the  interpretation  of  the  old  Persian  inscriptions, 
occupied  himself  also  with  the  other  two  systems  of 
cuneiform  writing  on  the  walls  of  Persepolis ;  the  chief 
result  was  that  he  was  enabled  to  show  that  the  third 
system  was  identical  with  that  found  among  the  ruins 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    Ill 

of  Babylon,  and  therefore  contained  a  Babylonian 
translation  of  the  Persian  text.  From  a  careful  ex- 
amination of  Babylonian  bricks  and  other  inscriptions, 
Grotefend  was  also  led  to  discover  the  frequently 
recurring1  names  of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  father, 

O  ' 

Nabopolassar,  because,  as  he  detected,  they  showed 
the  same  beginning  and  end ;  he  could  not,  however, 
pronounce  either  of  these  names.  Sir  Harford  Jones, 
the  East  India  Company's  resident  at  Bagdad,  acquired 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century  a  large  black  stone, 
covered  with  a  very  complicated  kind  of  cuneiform 
character.  This  was  immediately  published,  and  Grote- 
fend showed  that  the  inscription  was  identical  with  a 
cylinder  in  the  third  Persepolitan  character  brought 
from  Babylon  by  Ker  Porter,  and  that  both  contained 
the  name  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  This  was  a  valuable 
help  to  decipherers,  since  this  complicated  kind  has 
been  frequently  discovered  since,  and  on  account  of 
its  employment  in  the  most  ancient  monuments  has 
generally  received  the  name  of  "  archaic  character," 
although  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  successors  also  made 
frequent  use  of  it.  This  was  all  that  Grotefend  did  in 
the  field  of  Babylonian  research. 

Among  the  inscribed  monuments  discovered  in  the 
ruins  of  Babylon  since  the  time  of  Pere  Emmanuel, 
there  had  been  many  small  cylindrical  objects  of 
carnelian,  haematite,  and  other  precious  stones,  en- 
graved with  figures  and  characters  like  those  of 
Persepolis.  These  were  generally  thought  to  be 
amulets,  and  were  still  worn  as  such  by  some  of  the 


112 


NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


natives  of  Bagdad,  who  had  been  fortunate  enough  to 
discover  some  of  them,  in  spite  of  the  prohibition  of  the 
Koran.  They  were  soon  recognised  in  Europe  as  being 
the  seals  which  Herodotus  tells  us  were  universally 
carried  by  the  Babylonians,  and  the  hole  with  which 


CYLINDRICAL    SEALS    FROM    BABYLONIA 


they  are  perforated  was  evidently  to  enable  the  wearer 
to  pass  a  string  through  them.  This  inference  has 
been  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  impressions  of  them 
are  frequently  found  on  the  Babylonian  legal  and 
commercial  documents  :  the  clay  contracts,  which  the 
witnesses  and  official  scribes  stamped  with  their  seals, 
as  equivalent  to  written  signature.  One  such  seal  was 
found  early  in  this  century  by  the  Baron  de  Fauvel  on 
the  field  of  Marathon  :  undoubtedly  a  memorial  of  one 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND   BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    113 

of  the  soldiers  of  Darius  who  perished  there.  Many 
others  were  acquired  in  the  course  of  the  last  century, 
and  stored  in  public  and  private  collections.  Two  such 
seals  were  published  by  Dorow  at  Wiesbaden  in  1820, 
with  a  long  discussion  upon  them  by  Grrotefend,  but  no 
solid  results  were  obtained  from  his  explanations.  In 
1840,  although  the  Persian  inscriptions  had  all  been  read 
and  explained,  there  had  been  no  serious  work  on  the 
Babylonian  inscriptions,  so  much  more  complicated  in 
their  nature,  and  partly  written,  as  Tychsen,  Miinter, 
and  Grotefend  inferred,  in  monograms.  To  the  inscribed 
stones,  bricks,  and  gems  brought  to  Europe  by  the 
Abbe  Beauchamp,  Michaux,  and  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, had  been  added  many  clay  cylinders  and  tablets 
and  inscribed  slabs,  brought  by  Olivier,  Ker  Porter,  and 
Bich.  The  last  of  these  had  found  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions not  only  at  Babylon,  but  among  the  ruins  of 
Nineveh.  These  especially  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  well-known  Orientalist,  Jules  Mohl,  who  visited 
England  about  1840,  and  was  much  interested  in  Rich's 
and  Ker  Porter's  small  collection  of  Assyrian  anti- 
quities at  the  British  Museum.  On  his  return  to 
Paris,  accordingly,  Mohl  strongly  urged  Botta,  who 
was  about  to  be  sent  out  to  Asiatic  Turkey,  in  order 
to  occupy  the  newly-founded  post  of  French  Consul 
at  Mosul,  to  employ  his  spare  time  in  making  excava- 
tions on  the  neighbouring  site  of  Nineveh.  Botta 
went  out  in  1842,  and  immediately  set  to  work  to 
follow  the  advice  of  Mohl,  announcing  the  results  in 
a  series  of  letters  to  his  friend,  some  of  which  were 


114  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

published,  as  they  arrived,  in  the  Journal  Asiafique  during 
the  years  1843-1845. 

Botta  first  attempted  to  make  excavations  among 
the  mounds  of  Kouyunjik  and  Nebi  Yunus,  described 
by  Rich,  opposite  Mosul ;  but  he  was  hampered  in 
every  way  by  the  authorities,  and  only  acquired  a 
few  fragments  of  inscribed  stone.  By  chance  an  in- 
habitant of  TChorsabad,  a  small  village  four  hoars' 
journey  to  the  north-west  of  Mosul,  came  upon  the 
scene,  and  informed  the  French  Consul  that  inscriptions 
were  much  more  frequently  found  at  the  place  where 
he  lived.  Botta  caught  at  the  hint,  and  started  ex- 
cavations on  this  new  spot,  with  the  result  that  he 
soon  laid  bare  the  foundations  of  an  immense  edifice, 
and  found  among  them  sculptures  of  a  style  hitherto 
unknown,  and  in  large  quantities ;  he  had,  in  fact, 
brought  to  light  the  first  Assyrian  palace  disclosed 
to  the  eyes  of  modern  Europe :  the  residence  of  the 
powerful  monarch,  Sargon,  whose  name  is  mentioned 
by  Isaiah,  and  who  was  the  father  of  Sennacherib.  This 
identification,  however,  was  not  yet  discovered.  The 
important  point  for  our  history  is  that  a  large  number 
of  inscriptions  were  found  on  the  walls  of  the  palace, 
on  the  winged  bulls,  and  on  the  bas-reliefs,  which 
supplied  much  fresh  material  for  the  decipherers  to 
work  upon,  and  gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  study  of 
the  cuneiform  writing.  The  difficulties  against  which 
Botta  had  to  struggle  during  his  work  of  excavation 
were  enough  to  have  overcome  a  weaker  man.  A 
passage  in  the  Arabian  geographer  Yakut  announced 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    115 

that  a  large  treasure  was  concealed  at  Khorsabad,  and 
the  knowledge  of  this  aroused  the  suspicions  of  the 
Turkish  authorities,  who  put  every  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  the  French  researches.  Botta  was  accused  of  at- 


i'lm'  M, 


WINGED    BULL   FROM   KHORSABAD. 


tempting  to  erect  a  fort  at  Khorsabad  ;  some  of  the 
monuments  that  lie  found  were  destroyed  ;  news  was 
sent  to  Constantinople,  and  the  Government  of  the 
Sultan  was  asked  to  stop  the  excavations.  But  courage 
and  perseverance  won  the  day,  and  in  1847  a  large 
collection  of  sculpture  and  more  than  two  hundred 
12 


116  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

inscriptions   from   Khorsabad   arrived   safely   at  Paris. 

•J 

When  the  labour  of  excavation  was  done,  Botta  set  to 
work  to  study  the  material  he  had  found.  Others  had 
already  examined  the  copies  which  he  had  sent  from 
Mesopotamia  and  published  in  the  Journal  Asiatique. 
In  1845  Loewenstern  issued  a  memoir  in  which  he 
recognised  the  identity,  behind  certain  variations,  of  the 
cuneiform  characters  of  Khorsabad  with  the  third  kind 
of  writing  at  Persepolis  and  the  writing  found  among 
the  ruins  of  Babylon,  and  he  surmised,  but  was  unable 
to  prove,  that  the  name  of  the  builder  of  Khorsabad 
was  Sargon. 

In  1846  our  own  country  began  to  take  the  leading 
part  in  Mesopotamian  excavations  that  she  has  since 
maintained.  Sir  Henry  Layard,  with  the  assistance 
of  Lord  Stratford  de  Iledcliffe,  then  ambassador  at 
Constantinople,  began  his  famous  researches  at  Nimroud, 
five  hours  below  Mosul ;  two  galleries  of  antiquities  in 
the  Assyrian  department  of  the  British  Museum  are 
the  result  of  these  labours.  The  distinguished  explorer 
has  given  us  a  graphic  account  of  the  first  discovery  of 
the  winged  bulls  which  stood  at  the  gate  of  the  ancient 
palace  of  Ashur-nasir-pal.  The  natives,  in  immense 
excitement,  all  declared  that  Nimrod  himself  had  been 
unearthed;  and  one  of  the  Arabs,  at  the  first  moment 
of  the  discovery,  started  off  at  a  rapid  run  to  Mosul,  to 
inform  the  Pacha  of  the  event.  The  result,  of  course, 
was  that  it  was  declared  impious  to  touch  the  figure  of 
the  patriarch ;  the  excavations  were  stopped,  and  they 
could  only  be  resumed  on  the  receipt  of  a  special  permit 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    117 

from  the  Sultan,  obtained  by  the  British  ambassador 
himself.  But  Sir  H.  Layard's  work  is  too  well  known 
to  be  again  described  here.  It  needs  only  to  be  added 
that  between  1848  and  1853,  not  only  Ashur-nasir-pal's 
palace  at  Nimroud,  but  also  the  palaces  of  Sennacherib 
and  Aslmr-bani-pal,  or  Sardanapalus,  at  Kouyuujik,  had 
been  laid  bare  by  Sir  H.  Layard  and  Mr.  Hormuzd 
Rassam ;  and  that  in  a  hall  of  the  latter  edifice  the 
immense  collection  of  clay  tablets  inscribed  with  cunei- 
form characters,  known  as  the  Library  of  Ashur-bani-pal, 
had  been  discovered. 

Meanwhile,  Botta's  work  upon  his  inscriptions  had 
borne  some  fruits;  he  finally  established  the  identity, 
with  slight  variations,  of  the  Assyrian  writing  with 
that  of  Babylon  and  the  third  kind  at  Persepolis ;  he 
discovered  the  meaning  of  several  characters  occurring 
both  at  Khorsabad  and  in  Persia,  such  as  "  king," 
"king  of  kings,"  "country,"  "  my  lands,"  interpreting 
them  by  means  of  the  Persian  version ;  but  he  could 
not  pronounce  a  single  letter,  except  the  word  signifying 
"  I,"  which,  from  the  occurrence  of  the  characters  in 
certain  proper  names,  he  read  A-n-k,  and  identified  with 
the  Hebrew  anoki. 

In  1 849  the  Semitic  scholar  De  Saulcy  published 
the  Babylonian  version  of  the  trilingual  inscription  of 
Elvend,  with  a  commentary,  in  which  the  value  of 
every  character  and  the  meaning  of  every  word  are 
discussed.  This  was  the  first  attempt  of  the  kind,  and 
in  many  ways  still  retains  its  importance;  only  De 
Saulcy  imagined  that  the  Babylonian  writing  was 


118  NEW    LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

alphabetic :  this  obliges  him  to  adopt  the  theory  that 
many  characters  have  the  same  value  ;  two  diameters 
alone  (bu  and  mus)  suggest  to  him  the  idea  that  they 
represent  syllables.  A  second  memoir  by  De  Saulcy 
determined  the  consonantal  value  of  120  Assyrian 
characters,  although  he  still  looked  upon  them  as  alpha- 
betic, and  did  riot  understand  that  a  vowel  was  inherent 
in  them.  This  will  show  that  the  work  of  this  scholar 
on  the  Babylonian  inscriptions  was  of  considerable 
importance. 

It  was  Dr.  Hincks,  of  Dublin,  who  discovered  the 
leading  principle  of  the  Assyrian  writing :  namely,  the 
expression  of  whole  syllables  by  the  characters,  not 
simply  of  alphabetic  values,  whether  those  of  vowels  or 
consonants.  Hincks  read  the  results  of  his  researches 
before  the  Irish  Academy  at  various  sessions  during  the 
years  184G-1849.  Besides  the  syllabic  characters,  he 
finds  many  of  the  monogrammatic  characters  already 
noticed  by  Tychsen,  Miinter,  and  Grotefend,  and  these 
he  calls  abbreviated  characters. 

In  1851  Sir  Henry  Eawlinson  published  the  Baby- 
lonian version  of  the  great  Behistun  inscription,  the 
Persian  form  of  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  he  had 
given  to  the  world  in  1846.  The  chief  help  to  the 
decipherment  consisted  in  no  less  than  eighty  proper 
names,  which  were  compared  with  the  Persian  forms. 
It  will  at  once  be  obvious  that  this  is  sufficient  material 
for  the  reading  of  a  large  number  of  Babylonian  cha- 
racters ;  only  as  these  are  not  alphabetic,  but  are 
syllabic  and  monogrammatic,  and  amount  in  number  to 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND    BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.     119 

more  than  six  hundred,  it  will  be  seen  that  even  here 
there  is  not  an  opportunity  of  finding  out  nearly  all  the 
values. 

Sir  H.  Eawlinson's  own  account  of  his  method  may 
be  given  here  : — 

"The  tablets  of  Behistun,  of  Naksh-i-Rustam,  and  Persepolis 
have  furnished  a  list  of  more  than  eighty  proper  names,  of  which 
the  true  pronunciation  is  fixed  by  the  Persian  orthography,  and 
of  which  we  have  Babylonian  equivalents.  Careful  comparison  of 
these  duplicate  forms  of  writing  the  same  name,  and  a  due  appre- 
ciation of  the  phonetic  distinctions  peculiar  to  the  two  languages, 
have  supplied  means  of  determining,  with  more  or  less  of  certainty, 
the  value  of  about  a  hundred  Babylonian  characters,  and  a  very 
excellent  basis  has  been  thus  determined  for  a  complete  arrangement 
of  the  alphabet.  The  next  step  has  been  to  collate  the  inscriptions, 
and  to  asce~tain  or  infer  from  variant  orthographies  of  the  same 
name  (and  particularly  the  same  geographical  name)  the  homophones 
of  each  known  alphabetical  power.  In  this  stage  of  the  enquiry 
much  caution,  or,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  '  critique,'  is  necessary ;  for 
though  two  inscriptions  are  absolutely  identical  in  sense,  and  even  in 
expression,  it  does  not  follow  that  wherever  one  text  may  differ 
from  the  other  we  are  justified  in  supposing  that  we  have  found 
alphabetical  variants.  Many  sources  of  variety  exist  besides  the 
employment  of  homophones.  Ideographs  or  abbreviations  may  be 
substituted  for  words  expressed  phonetically  ;  sometimes  the  allo- 
cution is  altered  ;  sometimes  synonyms  are  made  use  of ;  grammatical 
suffixes  and  affixes,  again,  may  be  employed,  or  suppressed,  or  modified 
at  option.  By  mere  comparison,  however,  repeated  in  a  multitude 
of  instances,  so  as  to  reduce  almost  infinitely  the  chance  of  error, 
I  have  added  nearly  fifty  characters  to  the  hundred  previously 
known  through  the  Persian  key."  * 

At  the  same  time  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  had  to 
announce  the  discovery  of  one  of  the  strangest  pheno- 
mena that  exist  in  any  language  or  any  system  of 

*  Journal  of  Asiatic  Society,  Yol.  xii.,  p.  404  (1850). 


120  NEW   LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

writing,  and  that  is  the  use  in  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
of  "  allophones,"  or  characters  that  can  be  read  in  two 
or  more  different  ways.  An  instance  may,  perhaps,  be 
allowed :  the  Babylonian  word  for  "  Achsemenid "  is 
written  in  the  following  different  ways  in  the  inscriptions 
of  Persia ;  the  syllables  between  the  hyphens  are  each 
represented  by  one  character — 

A-kha-ma-an-ni-is-si'. 

A-kha-ma-nis-si'. 

A-kha-man-nis-si'. 

Now,  in  the  last  mode  of  writing,  the  characters  for 
man  and  nis  happen  to  be  identical  in  form ;  yet  there 
can,  be  no  doubt  that  they  are  to  be  read  as  two  entirely 
different  sounds.  The  different  ways  of  writing 
"  Acha9menid "  illustrate  the  variety  of  orthography 
in  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  texts ;  the  same  words 
are  found  written  in  several  manners. 

Another  quotation  from  Sir  Henry  Eawlinson  will 
show  how  progress  was  made  with  the  translation,  as 
apart  from  the  decipherment  of  the  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  inscriptions. 

"  The  Babylonian  translations  of  Persian  inscriptions  have  fur- 
nished a  list  of  about  two  hundred  Babylonian  words,  of  which  we 
know  the  sound  approximately  and  the  meaning  certainly.  These 
words  are  almost  all  found  either  entire  or  modified  in  the  Assyrian 
inscriptions,  and  we  can  usually  arrive  at  a  fairly  correct  notion  of 
the  phrase  in  which  they  occur. 

"  The  difficult,  and  at  the  same  time  the  essential,  part  of  the 
study  of  Assyrian  consists  in  discovering  the  unknown  from  the 
known,  in  laying  bare  the  anatomy  of  the  Assyrian  sentences,  and, 
guided  by  grammatical  indications,  by  a  few  Babylonian  landmark;-:, 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    121 

and  especially  by  the  context,  in  tracing  out,  sometimes  through 
Semitic  analogies,  but  more  frequently  through  an  extensive  com- 
parison of  similar  or  cognate  phrases,  the  meaning  of  words  which 
are  otherwise  strange  to  us.  ...  Thus,  I  have  added  about 
two  hundred  meanings  certainly,  and  a  hundred  more  probably,  to 
the  vocabulary  already  obtained  through  Babylonian  translations. 
I  estimate  the  number  of  words  in  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
inscriptions  at  about  five  thousand,  and  I  do  not  pretend  to  be 
acquainted  with  more  than  a  tenth  part  of  that  number  ;  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  these  words  constitute  all  the  most 
important  terms  in  the  language,  and  are  in  fact  sufficient  for  the 
interpretation  of  the  historical  inscriptions  and  for  the  general 
recognition  of  the  object  of  every  record,  be  it  an  invocation  or  a 
dedication,  or,  as  it  more  frequently  happens,  be  it  intended  as  a 
mere  commemorative  legend."  ' 

In  this  same  year,  1850,  before  Sir  H.  Eawlinson 
had  actually  published  any  of  his  Assyrian  translations, 
De  Saulcy  published  a  translation  of  ninety  lines  found 
at  Khorsabad ;  this  was  the  first  explanation  of  any- 
thing beyond  the  trilingual  inscriptions  of  Persia.  Sir 
H.  liawlinson  immediately  published  the  same  text, 
with  an  interpretation  slightly  different.  One  of  the 
principles  of  the  Assyrian  writing  was  illustrated  by 
the  discovery  in  the  Behistun  inscription  that  the  name 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  clearly  recognised  in  the  Persian 
text,  was  written  in  Babylonian  with  characters  that 
could  only  be  read  An-pa-sa-du-sis.  It  was  soon  seen 
that  besides  the  simple  ideograms  of  one  character,  or 
monograms,  which  had  early  been  detected  here  and 
there  in  the  Babylonian  inscriptions,  there  were  also 
words  written  ideographically  with  two  or  more 

*  Journal  of  Asiatic  Society,  Yol  xii.,  p.  409  (1850). 


122  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

characters,  and  that  the  pronunciation  of  these  could 
only  be  learnt  from  other  sources,  where  the  ideograms 
are  represented  by  words  spelt  phonetically. 

The  year  1857  is  memorable  in  the  annals  of 
Assyriology.  In  that  year  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society 
of  London  proposed  a  test  of  the  genuine  character  of 
the  translations  offered  by  scholars  of  the  Assyrian 
inscriptions.  It  was  as  follows  :  eight  hundred  lines  of 
cuneiform  writing,  recently  found  by  Layard  on  clay 
cylinders  at  Kalah  Sherkat,  not  far  from  the  site  of 
Nineveh,  were  to  be  independently  translated  by  any 
scholars  who  would  come  forward  and  accept  the  pro- 
posal ;  the  results  of  their  work  were  to  be  sent  sealed 
to  the  secretary  of  the  Society,  and  the  packets  were  to 
be  opened  on  the  same  day  before  a  commission,  which 
should  report  on  the  points  of  resemblance  or  unlikeness 
to  be  found  in  the  translations.  This  proposal  was 
made  public  in  March,  and  on  May  25th  four  packets 
were  opened,  containing  the  work  of  Sir  II.  Eawlinson, 
Mr.  Fox  Talbot,  Dr.  Hincks,  and  Dr.  Oppert.  The 
general  similarity  of  the  results  in  the  four  essays 
formed  a  strong  confirmation  of  the  genuineness  of 
the  translations  and  the  correctness  of  the  method  of 
decipherment,  which  even  such  a  sceptic  as  M.  Renan 
freely  admitted. 

As  it  was  to  be  expected,  however,  the  youthful 
science  of  Assyriology  met  with  much  opposition, 
especially  from  Semitic  scholars.  The  fact  that 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  belonged  to  the  Semitic 
family  of  languages  had  early  been  surmised,  and  the 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    123 

researches  of  De  Saulcy  had  put  it  beyond  a  doubt. 
The  Italian  scholar,  Luzzatto,  had  indeed  decided  on 
a  priori  grounds  that  Assyrian  must  belong  to  the  Indo- 
European  family  of  languages ;  in  1849  he  had  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  to  show  that  the  Assyrian  proper 
names  and  titles  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  and  in  Greek 
authors  could  only  be  explained  with  the  help  of  Sanscrit 
and  Persian  ;  and  a  year  later  he  issued  a  study  on 
the  inscriptions  of  Persepolis,  Hamadan,  Van,  and 
Khorsabad,  in  which  he  remarked  : — 

"  As  for  the  language,  all  these  Assyrian  scripts  which  present 
apparent  differences  at  Van,  at  Khorsabad,  at  Babylon,  and  in 
Persia,  express  one  and  the  same  language,  which,  indeed,  may  have 
undergone  the  changes  worked  by  time  on  the  most  stable  idioms ; 
and  this  language  belongs  by  its  grammar  and  by  its  lexicon  to  the 
great  family  of  the  Indo-European  tongues,  at  the  head  of  which 
stands  Sanscrit.''  * 

But  De  Saulcy,  Botta,  Rawlinson,  Hincks,  and 
Oppert  had,  in  the  opinion  of  most  scholars,  overthrown 
this  idea,  and  established  the  character  of  Assyrian  as  a 
Semitic  dialect.  Nevertheless,  they  had  not  laid  all 
doubts  to  rest.  The  greatest  Hebrew  scholar,  perhaps, 
of  his  day,  Heinrich  Ewald,  wrote  severely  in  1858  on 
the  work  of  Assyriologists,  and  on  the  improbability  of 
the  grammatical  forms  which  they  expected  to  be 
received  as  Semitic. f 

In  1859  a  review  of  M.  Oppert's  "Expedition  Sci- 
entifique  en  Mesopotamie  " — one  of  the  most  valuable 

*  "  Etudes  sur  les  inscriptions  Assyrieunes  de  Persepolis,  Hamadan, 
Van,  et  Khorsabad  "  (1850),  p.  207. 

t  "  Crottingische  gelehrte  Anzeigeu  "  (1858),  p.  190  £E. 


124  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

works  written  on  the  decipherment  of  the  Assyrian  in- 
scriptions— was  published  by  M.  Renan,  who  showed 
great  reluctance  to  accept  Assyrian  as  a  Semitic 
language : — 

"  If  we  examine  the  Semitic  language  which  results  from  the 
readings  of  Assyriologists,  independently  of  the  processes  by  which 
they  are  obtained,  we  experience  much  perplexity.  The  usages  of 
general  Semitic  grammar  are  often  violated.  Peculiarities  which 
are  thrown  into  the  background  in  Semitic  grammar  here  appear  in 
the  foreground  ;  we  are  constantly  meeting  with  forms  which  do  not 
seem  at  home,  and  with  words  never  found  in  the  other  Semitic 
languages.  To  \mderstand  the  astonishment  caused  by  this  fact, 
we  must  recall  the  strongly-marked  character  of  unity  presented  by 
the  Semitic  languages.  There  is  no  language  in  this  family  in  which 
in  is  not  translated  by  bi,  to  by  li,  all  by  kol.  A  Semitic  language 
in  which  in  is  rendered  by  ina,  to  by  ana,  all  by  yabbti,  as  M.  Oppert 
wishes,  is  a  phenomenon  almost  as  difficult  for  the  philologist  to 
admit  as  it  would  have  been  for  Cuvier  to  admit  a  carnivorous 
animal  with  flat  teeth  or  a  mastodon  with  wings.  The  organisation 
of  a  language  is  as  much  a  living  whole  as  that  of  an  animal,  and 
the  philologist  is  as  fully  authorised  to  declare  certain  grammatical 
forms  unnatural  as  the  anatomist  is  to  reject  the  possibility  of 
certain  beings.  ...  I  am  bound  to  say  this :  the  Semitic 
language  given  us  by  M.  Oppert  offends,  on  many  points,  the 
sense  which  I  believe  that  I  have  of  the  nature  of  a  Semitic 
language.  I  should  mistrust  this  judgment  if  it  was  isolated  ;  but 
it  is  also  that  of  one  of  the  men  who  best  understand  in  Europe  the 
comparative  grammar  of  the  Semitic  tongues.  I  demur  to  the 
somewhat  harsh  form  of  M.  Ewald's  observations.  Researches  of 
the  kind  which  now  occupies  us,  if  they  are  conducted  with  a  serious 
purpose,  ought  always  to  be  received  with  gratitude,  even  when 
objections  must  necessarily  be  made  to  them.  M.  Ewald,  whose 
merit  as  a  specialist  on  the  grammar  of  Hebrew  and  the  kindred 
languages  is  disputed  by  no  one,  rejects  the  Assyrian  grammar 
resulting  from  M.  Oppert's  readings.  His  observations  on  the 
inflexions,  especially  that  of  the  noun,  are  most  just ;  and  in 
general,  M.  Ewald's  impressions  in  the  presence  of  this  so-called 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.     125 

Semitic    language   are   exactly   those    that  I  have    myself    experi- 
enced." * 

But,  nevertheless,  M.  Renan  was  forced  to  admit 
that  there  were  very  clear  marks  of  Semitism  in 
Assyrian ;  and  he,  therefore,  suggests  that  the  language 
had  adopted  a  large  number  of  Semitic  words  and 
forms  like  Pehlvi,  or  even  modern  Turkish  and  Persian. 
Assyrian  seemed  to  him  to  be  only  half  Semitic. 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  opposition  of  these  Semitic 
scholars,  the  Assyriologists  have  gone  calmly  on  their 
way,  collecting  more  and  more  material  for  the  grammar 
and  lexicon  of  the  Assyrian  language.  Immense  diffi- 
culties have  stood  in  their  way,  owing  to  the  inaccurate 
mode  of  writing  of  the  Assyrians ;  the  variety  of  ortho- 
graphy ;  the  incompleteness  of  the  syllabary,  which  does 
not  express  some  of  the  most  important  letters,  namely, 
the  gutturals;  and  innumerable  inaccuracies,  which  often 
make  it  impossible  to  understand  the  exact  form  of  a 
word.  The  object  of  the  Assyrians  in  writing  seems, 
in  fact,  to  have  been  simply  to  render  the  sound  more 
or  less  roughly,  and  with  many  inconsistencies.  The 
precise  orthography  of  the  other  Semitic  languages  was 
unknown  to  them,  as  well  as  the  accuracy  of  the  later 
Semitic  alphabets.  Their  characters,  as  has  long  been 
surmised,  were  probably  borrowed  from  a  non-Semitic 
people. 

During  the  last  thirty  years  constant  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  texts.  New  material  has  been  brought  over 

*  Journal  des  Savants  (April,  1859),  p.  246. 


126  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

from  Mesopotamia  from  time  to  time,  especially  by  Mr. 
George  Smith  and  Mr.  Hormuzd  Rassam.  Texts  and 
translations,  commentaries,  papers  treating  of  points  of 
grammar  or  lexicography,  have  been  published  in 
numbers  every  year.  Everything  tends  to  clear  up 
disputed  points,  arid  to  complete  the  knowledge  of  the 
language.  The  Semitic  character  of  Assyrian  is  no 
longer  doubted  by  the  most  sceptical. 

Perhaps  this  sketch  of  the  decipherment  may  be 
concluded  with  a  short  account  of  some  of  the  external 
aids  to  reading  and  interpretation,  and  some  of  the 
methods  pursued  by  Assyriologists  in  general.  Pro- 
fessor Schrader,  in  his  book  on  the  principles  of  the 
cuneiform  writing,  classifies  the  external  aids  as 
follows:  the  trilingual  inscriptions  of  Persia,  the  parallel 
passages,  the  syllabaries,  the  sculptures,  historical 
tradition,  'free  combination.  The  help  afforded  by  the 
inscriptions  has  been,  it  is  hoped,  sufficiently  explained. 
The  parallel  passages  are  found,  for  instance,  in  the 
numerous  parallel  inscriptions  with  which  the  walls 
of  the  Assyrian  palaces  are  covered,  and  which  also 
exist  on  clay  cylinders  and  tablets ;  they  illustrate  the 
complicated  nature  of  the  Assyrian  writing  and  the 
variety  of  its  orthography.  For  instance,  there  is  one 
character,  among  others,  which  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  was 
unable  to  read  in  the  Behistun  inscription ;  in  one  of 
the  inscriptions  found  by  Botta  at  Khorsabad  it  occurs 
in  the  name  of  a  city ;  and  in  a  parallel  passage  from 
the  same  place  the  name  of  this  city  is  written  without 
this  particular  character,  but  with  two  other  already 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    127 

known  characters  in  its  place:  namely,  zi-ir.  This  at 
once  shows  the  value  of  the  unknown  character  to  be 
zir,  and  the  word  was  easily  identified  with  the  Hebrew 
zera ',  and  translated  seed  Gt  family.  This  is  one  instance 
of  a  process  that  had  to  be  repeated  hundreds  of  times 
before  the  characters  of  the  Assyrian  writing  were 
understood. 

The  help  given  by  the  "  syllabaries  "  was  totally 
unexpected  by  the  first  decipherers.  It  was  in  1849 
that  Sir  Henry  Layard  discovered  a  number  of  clay 
tablets  in  the  "library  of  Ashur-bani-pal,"  which  proved, 
on  examination,  to  be  evidently  intended  by  the  As- 
S}7rians  themselves  as  helps  for  those  who  were  learning 
to  read  and  write  in  ancient  days.  The  syllabaries  are 
chiefly  of  service  for  the  explanation  of  the  ideograms 
or  monogrammatic  characters,  which  frequently  occur 
in  the  inscriptions,  where  there  is  sometimes  no  clue  to 
their  pronunciation.  They  afford  the  same  help  that 
was  given,  in  the  instance  cited  above,  by  the  parallel 
passage.  We  find  in  the  syllabaries  such  cases  as  the 
following  :  a  character,  often  used  as  an  ideogram,  is 
written  on  one  side  of  a  line  drawn  down  the  middle ; 
on  the  other  side  are  some  well-known  phonetic 
characters  which  express  the  sound  of  the  aforesaid 
ideogram  ;  thus  : 


x 


(one  character). 


si-i-mu 


(three  characters). 


This  teaches  us  that  the  hitherto  unknown  character 
x  is  to  be  pronounced  slum. 


128  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  help  rendered  to  the  decipherer  by  the  sculp- 
tures will  be  easily  understood ;  although  its  value 
lies  rather  in  suggestion  and  confirmation  of  results 

o  o 

derived  from  other  considerations,  and  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  depend  upon  it  alone.  The  bas-relief  on 
the  rock  of  Beliistun,  which  represents  a  king  placing 
his  foot  on  the  neck  of  a  prostrate  individual,  while 
nine  others  with  ropes  round  their  necks  stand  before 
him,  illustrates  in  a  most  satisfactory  manner  the 
account  read  by  Sir  H.  Bawlinson  in  the  text  of  the 
conquest  and  chastisement  of  rebels  by  Darius.  In 
the  black  obelisk  from  Nimroud  we  sec  trains  of  envoys 
bringing  presents  to  the  Assyrian  king,  and  here  we 
have  a  confirmation  of  the  decipherment  of  the  inscrip- 
tion as  a  list  of  monarchs  who  sent  tribute  to  Shal- 
maneser  II.,  including  Jehu,  the  king  of  Israel.  In  the 
hunting-scenes,  we  see  Ashur-bani-pal  seizing  a  lion 
by  the  ear,  and  an  accompanying  inscription  announces 

that  the  king  "seized  the  animal  by  the  ;  "  we 

can  infer  that  the  unknown  character  here  signifies  ear: 
an  inference  fully  borne  out  by  the  further  study  of  an 
ideogram,  the  pronunciation  and  meaning  of  which  have 
now  been  fully  established. 

The  assistance  rendered  by  historical  tradition  is. 
illustrated  by  the  f~ct  that  it  was  the  statement  of 
Grenesis,  chap,  x.,  that  the  Assyrians  were  a  Semitic 
people,  which  induced  the  decipherers  to  expect  a 
Semitic  language  behind  the  cuneiform  characters  of 
Nineveh ;  and  this  expectation  was  fully  justified  by 
the  results.  Again,  in  certain  cylinders  from  Nineveh, 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  INSCRIPTIONS.    129 

a  king  was  mentioned  as  the  subject  of  the  narrative, 
whose  name  was  written  in  ideograms,  and  could  not  be 
read ;  but  in  the  same  inscriptions  a  city,  Ur-sa-Jun-mi/, 
and  a  Jewish  king,  Ha-za-ki-ya-hu,  were  alluded  to,  and 
these  could  hardly  be  other  than  the  names  of  Jeru- 
salem and  Hezekiah ;  the  Assyrian  king,  therefore, 
was  identified  with  Sennacherib,  and  since  then  the 
ideograms  composing  his  name  have  been  fully  ex- 
plained from  other  sources,  and  are  read  Sin-akhi-irba. 
A  land  of  Akharri  *  is  frequently  mentioned  in  Assyrian 
inscriptions.  The  geographical  position  of  this  region 
would  be  entirely  unknown  to  us  were  it  not  that  the 
cities  of  Tyre  (Surru)  and  Sidon  (Ziduni)  are  alluded 
to  as  situated  within  it,  and  prove  it  to  be  Phoenicia. 

*  The  Tell  el  Amarna  tablets  show  us  that  this  name  is  to  bo  pro- 
nounced Amuri,  and  probably  means  "  land  of  the  Amorites,"  a  designation 
roughly  given  to  the  whole  of  Syria. 


$art  II. 

RECENT      DISCOVERIES. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE    DISCOVERIES    AT    TELLO. 

UNTIL  recently,  the  date  at  which  the  art  of  writing 
may  have  been  introduced  among  the  Semitic  races  was 
a  much  disputed  question.  Many  held  that  no  written 
monuments  could  have  existed  before  Moses.  There 
was  certainly  no  proof  that  the  art  was  practised  in  the 
time  of  the  patriarchs ;  such  a  composition  as  the  song 
of  Lamech,  with  its  pro  verb- like  brevity,  might  well 
have  been  handed  down  by  oral  tradition ;  and  there  is 
no  mention  of  writing  in  the  Book  of  Genesis.  The 
important  question  whether  a  written  character  was 
already  in  use  among  the  Semitic  peoples  in  the  time  of 
Joseph  or  Abraham,  and  whether  Moses,  supposing  him 
to  be  the  author  of  Genesis,  could  have  made  use  of 
documents  earlier  than  his  own  time,  was  one  that  found 
no  answer.  It  was  discovered,  indeed,  early  in  this 
century  that  the  Egyptians  had  employed  their  hiero- 
glyphics from  a  remote  period ;  but  these  could  never 
have  been  adopted  by  a  Semitic  people ;  and  there  was 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Phoenicians  had  invented 
their  alphabet  until  a  date  subsequent  to  Moses. 

Heinrich  Ewald,  whose   "  History  of    Israel "  was 
first  published  in  1843,  the  year  which  gave  birth  to 


THE    DISCOVEUIES   AT    TELLO.  131 

the   new  science  of  Assyriology   through   Botta's  first 
discoveries  at  Khorsabad,  thus  expresses  himself  :*- 

"  The  question  stands  briefly  thus :  Was  there  a  system  of 
writing  already  current  in  the  time  of  Joseph  or  Abraham,  or  at 
least  in  the  days  of  Moses?  We  are  entirely  without  evidence  to 
decide  this  question.  .  .  . 

"The  narratives  of  the  patriarchal  ages  bear  no  trace  of  a 
certain  tradition  of  the  use  of  writing  in  that  ancient  period.  .  .  . 

"  It  cannot  be  proved  that  any  written  documents  came  down 
from  the  patriarchal  times  to  later  ages." 

Now,  however,  the  question  may  receive  a  positive 
answer.  Recent  discoveries  among  the  most  ancient 
remains  of  Chaldaea  have  proved  that  the  art  of  writing 
was  practised  at  a  period  long  anterior  to  the  time  of 
Abraham,  in  the  very  country  from  which  the  patriarch 
himself  is  said  to  have  proceeded.  It  is  now  generally 
accepted  that  the  city  of  Ur,  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Euphrates,  half-way  between  Babylon  and  the  Persian 
Gulf,  and  represented  by  the  ruins  which  the  modern 
Arabs  call  Mukeyyer,  was  that  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  where 
Abraham  was  born ;  and  inscriptions  on  clay  have  been 
found  there  which  must  be  ascribed  to  a  date  long 
before  B.C.  2000.  But  the  question  whether  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees  was  a  city,  or,  as  the  Septuagint  takes  it, 
simply  the  territory  of  the  Chaldseans,  makes  little 
difference  here,  since  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  agree 
with  Strabo  in  showing  that  the  Chaldeans  inhabited 
the  southern  region  of  Mesopotamia  in  which  Mukeyyer 
is  situated.  The  inscriptions  found  at  Ur  itself  have 
at  present  been  few  in  number,  and  belong  to  a  limited 

*  Ewald,  "  Geschichte  des  Volkes  Israel"  (1843),  YoL  i.,  pp.  63  and  66. 

j  2 


132 


NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


period.  If  the  great  temple  of  the  moon-god,  founded 
in  the  very  beginning1  of  history,  and  maintained  down 

J  J  * 

to  the  latest  times  of  the  Babylonian  monarchy,  could 
be  fully  excavated,  or  if  the  city,  round  the  walls  of 
which  lies  a  circle  of  tombs,  could  be  ransacked  for  its 
hidden  archaeological  treasures,  the  results  would,  no 
doubt,  reward  the  hardest  labour ;  but  at  present  we  must 


MUKEYYER,    IDENTIFIED    BY    SIR    H.    KAWLINSON    WITH    UR   OF    THE    CHALDEES. 

look  for  our  chief  source  of  information  about  the  early 
civilization  of  Chaldsea,  in  the  time  of  Abraham  and 
before  his  date,  to  another  site,  that  of  a  city  which  was 
at  a  certain  period  subject  to  the  powerful  kings  of  Ur, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  it  lies.  This  site  is 
that  of  the  city  of  Lagash,  represented  by  the  mounds 
of  Tello,  fifteen  hours  north  of  Mukeyyer,  and  twelve 
hours  east  of  Warka,  the  ancient  Erech.* 

*  Genesis  x.  10. 


THE    DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  133 

It  was  a  belief  of  ancient  writers  that  Abraham  was 
a  learned  man,  especially  versed  in  the  science  of  astro- 
nomy, which  he  imparted  to  the  Egyptians  during  his 
visit  to  their  country ;  and  this  opinion  seems  to  have 
been  partly  based  on  a  passage  in  the  Babylonian  history 
of  Berosus,  now  unfortunately  lost.  Modern  writers 
have  considered  that  it  was  a  false  ascription  to  an 
uncultivated  age  of  the  high  cultivation  which  distin- 
guished the  Babylonians  in  the  days  of  Darius  or 
Alexander.  But  in  the  face  of  the  new  discoveries,  we 
must  now  admit  that  even  in  the  time  of  Abraham 
the  Chaldaeans  had  reached  a  high  degree  of  culture, 
and  very  probably  had  already  obtained  much  of  that 
knowledge  of  the  stars  which  their  constant  obser- 
vations on  the  plains  of  the  Euphrates  enabled  them  to 
acquire.  We  must  remind  ourselves  that,  according  to 
the  Babylonian  tradition,  the  coast  of  the  Persian  Grulf 
was  the  cradle  of  civilization ;  it  was  there  that  the 
mythical  Oannes  appeared,  and 

"gave  men  the  knowledge  of  letters  and  sciences,  and  arts  of  all 
kinds ;  and  taught  them  to  build  cities,  and  to  found  temples,  and 
to  enact  laws,  and  to  measure  the  ground ;  and  showed  them  how  to 
sow  seeds  and  gather  in  the  fruits ;  and  in  general  instructed  them 
in  all  matters  that  tend  to  civilize  human  life."  * 

Let  us  now  see  what  the  last  ten  years  have  brought 
to  licrht  of  the  most  ancient  civilization  of  Southern 

O 

Babylonia,  or  Chaldsea,  the  country  from  which  Abraham 
set  forth  on  his  journey  to  Canaan. 

Until  ten  years  ago  hardly  anything  was  known  of 

*  Berosus  in  Eusebius,  Chron.  Arm.,  p.  8,  and  Syiicellus,  p.  28,  B. 


134  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

the  early  history  of  Babylonia.  The  excavations  at 
Khorsabad,  Nimroud,  Kouyunjik,  and  other  places,  had 
brought  to  light  inscriptions  which  enabled  us  to 
re-construct  the  history  of  Assyria  in  the  most  authentic 
manner,  from  contemporary  monuments  belonging  to  a 
period  of  nearly  a  thousand  years  ;  and  the  sculptures, 
architectural  remains,  and  objects  of  all  sorts,  gave  us 
a  very  fair  idea  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
ancient  empire.  But  comparatively  little  had  been 
found  among  the  even  more  ancient  remains  of 
Babylonia  or  Chaldtea.  The  site  of  Eridu  at  Abu 
Shahrein,  that  of  Larsa  at  Senkereh,  that  of  Erech  at 
Warka,  and  that  of  Ur  at  Mukeyyer,  had  been  proved 
to  contain  architectural  remains  of  the  highest  interest, 
and  had  yielded  some  inscriptions  of  the  greatest  value; 
but  the  imperfect  excavations  had  brought  to  light  no 
important  works  of  sculpture,  and  had  not  been 
sufficiently  methodical  or  complete  to  show  how  many 
treasures  are  really  concealed  beneath  those  mounds 
with  which  the  plains  of  ChaldaBa  are  strewn.  At 
last,  in  1878,  Mr.  Horinuzd  Eassam  discovered  the 
remains  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Abu  Habba,  the 
ancient  Sippara,  so  famous  for  its  school  of  astronomers 
and  its  library  of  clay  tablets  ;  here  he  found  many 
valuable  records,  and  above  all  a  mass  of  legal  deeds 
and  commercial  contracts  on  clay,  belonging  to  the 
period  from  Nabopolassar  to  Darius  Hystaspis  (B.C.  620 
-485). 

At   about   the    same   time   that    Mr.    Eassam    was 
exploring    Abu-Habbah,    the    French    vice-consul    at 


THE   DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  135 

Bassorah,  M.  de  Sarzec,  began  to  undertake  excavations 
at  a  series  of  mounds  named  Tello,  situated  fifteen 
hours  north  of  Mukeyyer  and  twelve  hours  east  of 
Warka :  an  hour  and  a  half  to  the  east  of  an  ancient 
canal,  called  the  Shatt  el-Hai,  which,  running  almost 
due  north  and  south,  joins  the  Tigris  to  the 
Euphrates.  The  region  in  which  Tello  lies  had  always 
been  considered  unapproachable  ;  for  it  is  in  the  midst 
of  deserts  and  marshes,  only  inhabited  by  the  Montefik 
Arabs,  a  tribe  of  warlike  marauders,  almost  always  in 
a  state  of  rebellion  against  the  Turkish  authorities. 
M.  de  Sarzec,  however,  during  his  residence  at 
Bassorah,  had  formed  some  alliances  with  members  of 
this  tribe,  and  so  was  enabled  to  venture  for  a  time, 
although  at  considerable  risk,  into  their  domain.  The 
whole  district  is  covered  with  mounds ;  but  the  excep- 
tional number  of  fragments  of  all  sorts,  potsherds, 
inscribed  cones  and  bricks,  and  broken  sculpture,  which 
strewed  the  mounds  of  Tello,  made  the  French  consul 
decide  to  begin  operations  here.  He  was  rewarded  by 
finding  that  the  principal  elevation  was  formed  of  a 
building  of  baked  bricks,  standing  on  a  platform  of 
unburnt  brick-work,  covered  and  concealed  by  the  sands 
of  the  desert,  which  for  many  centuries  had  been  blown 
across  it. 

Further  researches  on  the  part  of  M.  de  Sarzec 
brought  to  light  all  sorts  of  remains,  such  as  the  frames 
of  doorways,  a  series  of  brick  cavities  enclosing  bronze 
statuettes  and  inscribed  tablets,  and  two  large  clay 
cylinders  covered  with  cuneiform  characters.  After 


136  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

working  during  two  winters,  he  made  a  journey  home 
to  Europe,  and  arrived  in  Paris  with  his  first  spoils  in 
July,  1878.  At  the  beginning  of  1880  the  vice-consul 
had  returned  to  the  East  with  a  firman  from  the  Sultan, 
granting  full  permission  for  further  excavations  ;  and 
accordingly  he  proceeded  again  to  the  scene  of  his 
former  labours.  During  his  absence  in  France,  M.  de 
Sarzec  had  been  married,  and  his  bride  courageously 
insisted  on  sharing  with  him  the  risk  and  exposure 
involved  in  his  work.  They  established  their  house- 
hold in  a  tent  at  a  small  village  on  the  banks  of  the 
Shatt  el-Hai,  and,  in  spite  of  constant  alarms,  were  not 
seriously  molested  by  the  turbulent  Arabs  ;  and  from 
his  hearth  in  the  midst  of  the  desert  M.  de  Sarzec 
journeyed  every  morning  across  the  rough  and  marshy 
country  to  the  mounds  of  Tello. 

The  physical  features  of  the  region  of  Lower 
Chaldaea,  in  which  Tello  is  situated,  are  thoroughly 
characteristic.  There  are  two  ways  of  reaching  the 
place  from  Bassorah,  says  M.  de  Sarzec  :  either  by  the 
Tigris  and  the  Shatt  el-Hai  or  by  the  Euphrates  and 
the  Shatt  el-Hai.  Those  travelling  by  the  second 
route  find  that  at  the  village  of  Beni-Seds  the 
Euphrates  divides  into  several  branches,  each  of  which 
is  sub-divided  into  little  canals,  by  which  the  river 
spreads  over  the  country  and  makes  it  a  huge  marsh, 
twelve  or  fifteen  leagues  broad  from  east  to  west,  and 
ten  or  twelve  from  north  to  south. 

"  Among  the  network  of  canals  which  cross  one  another  in  the 
midst  of  the  reed-beds  and  islets  with  which  the  marshes  are  covered, 


THE   DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  137 

we  find  two  navigable  channels,  usually  followed  by  the  boats  which 
ascend  and  descend  the  Euphrates. 

"  One  of  them,  named  by  the  people  of  the  country  the  Old 
Euphrates,  turns  abruptly  to  the  left,  and,  describing  an  immense 
curve  towards  the  south,  encloses  the  marshes,  and  separates  them 
from  the  desert.  Then  ascending  once  more  towards  the  north-east, 
the  channel  becomes  broader  and  deeper,  in  proportion  as  it  leaves 
the  marshes  and  re-enters  its  bed.  Two  hours  before  arriving  at 
Sook  esh-shioukh  the  stream  has  become  a  river  again  ;  and  the 
Euphrates,  now  nearly  two  hundred  yards  broad,  flows  slowly 
on  between  two  rows  of  date-palms.  This  ancient  bed  of  the  river, 
choked  up  long  ago  by  the  mud  of  the  marshes,  in  which  it  almost 
loses  itself,  is  now  only  followed  by  light  boats  drawing  very  little 
water. 

"  The  other  branch  is  a  narrow  but  deep  channel,  which  crosses 
the  marsh  almost  in  a  straight  line  from  one  end  to  the  other.  The 
boat  glides  along  by  a  thousand  turnings  among  the  reeds,  which 
here  grow  several  yards  high.  From  time  to  time  the  reed-beds 
separate  sufficiently  to  allow  you  to  perceive  on  the  right,  towards 
the  north,  and  in  the  direction  of  Tello,  a  real  inland  sea,  the 
uniform  surface  of  which  extends  as  far  as  you  can  see  towards  the 
horizon.  Here  and  there,  on  the  right  and  left  of  the  channel, 
appear,  among  islets  covered  with  date-palms,  the  huts  of  the  Arab 
villages.  It  requires  twelve  hours  to  traverse  these  marshes." 

This  description  of  the  region  of  Lower  Chaldsea,  its 
marshes,  its  reed-beds,  and  its  date-palms,  shows  us 
what  the  country  has  been  like  from  the  time  of  Abra- 
ham to  the  present  day ;  only  in  the  days  of  the 
highest  civilization,  when  the  canals  were  kept  in  order 
by  the  Babylonian  kings,  part  of  what  is  now  marsh- 
land was  a  fertile  and  inhabited  district.  The  bas- 
reliefs  of  the  time  of  Sennacherib  and  Sardanapalus  give 
pictures  of  the  country  which  closely  agree  with  the 
words  of  M.  de  Sarzec  ;  we  see  the  same  streams  flowing 
among  the  reeds,  which  formed  a  convenient  hiding-place 


138  NEW  LIGHT   ON   THE   BIBLE. 

for  fugitives  in  time  of  war ;  and  the  date-palms  growing 
by  the  waterside  are  not  absent  from  the  scene.  Strabo's 
account  of  the  region  in  the  time  of  Christ  presents  the 
same  features : — 

"It  thus  happens  that  the  overflow  of  the  rivers  covers  the 
plains  towards  the  sea,  and  produces  lakes  and  marshes  and  beds  of 
reeds,  out  of  which  all  sorts  of  baskets  are  manufactured." 

As  for  the  palm,  it  was  so  common  that  it  provided 
the  chief  part  of  the  food  of  the  people — 

"  The  country  produces  barley  in  greater  luxuriance  than  any 
other,  for  it  is  said  to  bear  three  hundred-fold ;  but  all  other  food  is 
provided  by  the  palm-tree,  from  which  come  bread,  wine,  vinegar, 
honey,  meal,  and  all  sorts  of  ropes  and  mats  ;  coppersmiths  use  the 
date-kernels  as  fuel,  while  the  same,  steeped  in  water,  are  given  as 
food  to  oxen  and  sheep.  They  say  that  there  is  a  Persian  song  in 
which  three  hundred  and  sixty  uses  for  the  palm-tree  are  reckoned 
up."  * 

This  extensive  use  of  dates  as  food  is  illustrated  by 
the  contract  tablets  of  Babylonia,  which  are  frequently 
occupied  with  sales  of  loads  of  dates,  or  payment  of 
dates  as  tribute  to  temples.  The  fermented  juice  of  the 
date  was  called  shikaru  by  the  Babylonians,  as  it  is  still 
named  sakar  by  the  Arabs  :  the  same  word  is  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  in  connection  with 
wine,  and  translated  "  strong  drink  "  in  the  Authorized 
Version.  In  the  Gospel  of  Saint  Luke  the  same  Semitic 
word  sikera  is  used,  where  it  is  said  that  John  the 
Baptist 

"  shall  be  great  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  and  shall  drink  neither 
wine  nor  strong  drink." 

•  Strabo,  xvi  1. 


THE    DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  139 

Even  at  the  present  day  the  peasantry  of  Chaldsea 
chiefly  subsist  on  dates  pressed  into  cakes,  and  drink 
the  sakar,  or  spirituous  liquor  made  of  the  same  fruit, 
from  which  they  also  prepare  a  sort  of  molasses,  or 
honey,  as  in  Straho's  time. 

During  the  year  1880  M.  de  Sarzec  and  his  band  of 
excavators  succeeded  in  laying  bare  almost  the  whole  of 
the  great  building  concealed  under  the  principal  mound 
of  Tello,  and  in  finding  nine  large  statues,  th«  first 
Babylonian  sculptures  of  importance  that  had  yet  been 
discovered.  During  the  course  of  the  same  year,  his 
work  was  interrupted  by  an  attack  of  marsh  fever,  the 
scourge  of  this  annually  inundated  region ;  but  in  the 
autumn,  and  in  the  spring  of  1881,  he  had  resumed  his 
diggings,  and  disinterred  other  smaller  buildings  in  the 
neighbouring  mounds.  Meanwhile,  the  attention  of  the 
scientific  world  had  been  drawn  to  the  new  discoveries, 
and  the  French  Government  had  become  interested  in 
the  work  of  the  vice-consul.  Accordingly,  in  May, 
1882,  M.  Jules  Ferry  propoied  a  grant  for  the  purchase 
of  the  antiquities  discovered,  and  the  Chambers  voted 
in  favour  of  it.  The  statues  and  other  objects  were 
placed  in  the  Louvre,  and  M.  Leon  Heuzey,  the  keeper 
of  the  Oriental  department,  was  entrusted  with  the  care 
of  them. 

It  is  chiefly  from  the  results  of  M.  Heuzey 's  study 
of  the  Chaldsean  remains  brought  to  Paris  by  M.  de 
Sarzec  that  the  rest  of  Europe  has  become  acquainted 
with  the  importance  of  the  new  find.  The  buildings, 
sculptures,  bronzes,  and  inscriptions  of  Tello  were  the 


140  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

first  extensive  remains  discovered  of  that  early  Chaldsean 
civilization,  the  beginnings  of  which  belong  to  a  period  of 
culture  probably  exceeding  in  antiquity  that  of  any  other 
region.  To  the  Biblical  student,  above  all,  these  monu- 
ments possess  the  highest  interest,  for  they  throw  some 
light  on  the  early  culture  of  that  country  from  which 
the  Hebrew  race  proceeded  :  the  country  of  the  patriarch 
Abraham.  Mukeyyer,  the  remains  of  that  city  of  Ur 
which  is  now  generally  identified  with  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees,  lies  only  fifteen  hours  to  the  south  of  Tello ; 
the  kings  of  Ur  were  at  a  certain  period  the  rulers  of 
Lagash,  as  Tello  was  called  in  ancient  times.  The 
objects  and  inscriptions  found  by  M.  de  Sarzec  belong 
to  various  periods,  covering  many  centuries,  and  it  may 
well  be  that  some  of  them  are  actually  of  the  date 
when  Abraham  left  Ur,  and  journeyed  towards  the  west. 
The  town  of  Lagash  seems  to  have  been  founded  in  the 
very  earliest  period  of  civilization ;  and  yet  the  palace, 
at  any  rate,  seems  actually  to  have  been  restored  and 
inhabited  many  years  after  the  conquest  of  Alexander, 
by  the  Gra3co-Parthian  kings  of  Characene.  Above  all, 
such  discoveries  as  that  of  Tello  give  us  good  reason  to 
hope  that,  when  once  the  mounds  which  dot  the  alluvial 
plains  of  Chaldaea  are  fully  excavated,  sufficient  material 
will  be  found  to  re-construct  the  history  of  that  region 
from  the  very  origin  of  civilization. 

No  peoples  have  been  so  careful  to  preserve  records 
of  their  deeds  as  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians.  The 
materials  upon  which  they  chose  to  write,  clay  and 
stone,  are  qualified  to  last  to  the  end  of  time,  and  the 


THE   DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  141 

almost  superstitious  reverence  which  they  themselves 
had  for  their  records  guarded  the  latter  from  wilful 
destruction.  This  is  what  makes  the  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions of  such  exceptional  interest  and  value  to  the 
historian.  Many  statements  in  ancient  authors  in- 
dicate the  completeness  of  the  series  of  chronological 
records  preserved  by  the  Chaldseans.  Berosus  says  that 
his  countrymen  possessed  documents  covering  a  period  of 
150,000  years,  and  containing  histories  of  the  heavens, 
of  the  seas,  of  the  creation  of  man,  and  of  the  kings  of 
Babylon ;  and  there  are  frequent  proofs  in  the  cunei- 
form inscriptions  of  the  existence  of  historical  accounts 
(which  modern  explorers,  however,  have  not  yet  had 
the  good  fortune  to  discover)  reaching  back  to  remote 
epochs.  The  clay  cylinders  on  which  the  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  monarchs  had  the  records  of  their 
wars  and  buildings  inscribed  were  carefully  buried  in 
cavities  made  on  purpose  to  contain  them,  in  the  base- 
ment of  their  palaces  or  temples  ;  and  these  documents 
always  end  with  the  injunction,  addressed  to  any  future 
sovereign  who  shall,  in  repairing  the  building,  discover 
the  hiding-place  of  the  cylinder,  to  replace  it  carefully, 
with  religious  rites ;  if  he  should  fail  to  do  so,  the 
curse  of  the  gods  is  invoked  upon  his  head.  The 
same  expressions  are  used  in  the  inscribed  tablets  which 
were  put  up  on  the  walls  of  the  palaces  and  temples, 
to  proclaim  to  every  visitor  the  exploits  of  the  king. 
Thus  Bamman-Nirari  I.,  who  reigned  over  Assyria  in 
the  fourteenth  century  before  Christ,  declares  at  the 
end  of  an  inscription  on  a  slab,  found  in  the  Temple 


142  NEW  LIGHT   ON    THE    SIDLE. 

of  Ashur,  among  the  ruins  of  the  city  of  Ashur,  one 
of  the  ancient  capitals  of  the  country  : — 

"For  future  days:  let  future  princes,  if  this  place  shall  grow  old 
and  fall  into  decay,  restore  the  ruins,  and  replace  my  tablet  and  the 
inscription  of  my  name,  then  will  Ashur  hear  their  prayers ;  but  if 
any  shall  erase  my  name  and  write  his  own  name  in  its  place,  or  if 
he  shall  remove  my  tablet,  destroy  it,  throw  it  into  the  river,  or 
burn  it  with  fire  ....  may  Ashur,  the  high  god,  who  inhabits 
the  temple  of  Eharsagkurkura :  may  Anu,  Bel,  Ea,  and  Ishtar,  the 
great  gods  :  may  the  Igigi  of  heaven  and  the  Anunnaki  of  earth 
strike  him  with  their  hands,  curse  him  with  an  evil  curse,  destroy 
his  name,  his  seed,  his  power,  and  his  family  in  the  land ;  may 
destruction  of  his  land,  ruin  to  his  people  and  his  territory,  come 
forth  out  of  their  holy  mouth ;  may  Blmmon  punish  him  with 
storms  of  rain,  and  send  floods,  evil  winds,  rebellion,  oppression, 
famine  into  his  land.  .  .  . 

We  have  several  proofs  that  the  princes  who  kept 
the  palaces  and  temples  in  repair,  through  fear,  perhaps, 
that  these  curses  might  be  fulfilled,  had  the  greatest 
respect  for  the  records  of  their  predecessors,  even  when 
they  belonged  to  dynasties  different  from  their  own.  It 
was,  without  doubt,  a  foundation-cylinder,  or  a  tablet 
which  informed  Tiglath-Pileser  I.  of  the  date  of  the 
erection  of  a  temple  which  he  restored  in  Ashur,  his 
capital : — 

"  At  that  time  the  temple  of  Anu  and  Kimmon,  the  great  gods, 
my  lords,  which  Shamshi-Ramman,  the  priestly  governor  of  Ashur, 
son  of  Ishmi-Dagan,  the  priestly  governor  of  Ashur,  had  built,  had 
gradually,  during  six  hundred  and  forty-one  years,  been  falling  into 
ruin.  Ashur-dan,  king  of  Assyria,  had  pulled  that  temple  down,  but 
had  not  re-built  it;  for  sixty  years  its  foundations  had  not  been 
laid. 

"  At  the  beginning  of  my  reign,  Anu  and  Rimmon,  the  great  gods, 
my  lords,  commanded  me  to  restore  their  sanctuary.  I  had  bricks 


THE    DISCOVERIES   AT   TELLO.  143 

made,  cleared  the  ground,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  strong  stone 
from  the  mountains." 

Historical  records,  carefully  preserved  for  more  than 
sixteen  centuries,  enabled  Sardanapalus  to  know  the 
history  of  a  certain  image  of  the  goddess  Nana,  long 
before  carried  away  from  Babylonia,  and  recovered  by 
him  in  his  campaign  against  the  Blamites  in  B.C.  648, 
upon  the  capture  of  Susa,  their  capital. 

"  Kudurnankhundi  the  Elamite,  who  did  not  honour  the  name  of 
the  great  gods,  relying  in  his  madness  on  his  own  power,  laid  his 
hand  upon  the  temples  of  Accad  and  laid  waste  the  land  of  Accad. 
.  .  .  But  the  days  were  fulfilled,  the  time  appointed  arrived,  the 
great  gods  saw  what  had  occurred,  and  took  revenge,  after  sixteen 
hundred  and  thirty-five  years,  for  the  destruction  wrought  by  the 
Elamites.  They  sent  me,  Sardanapalus  the  prince,  their  worshipper, 
to  ravage  the  land  of  Elam,  and  placed  in  my  hand"  a  pitiless 
weapon." 

The  great  re-builder  of  ancient  temples  among  the 
Babylonian  monarchs  was  the  last  of  the  latter  :  namely, 
Nabonidus.  In  his  work  of  restoration  he  more  than 
once  came  upon  the  records  of  ancient  sovereigns,  which 
he  carefully  restored  to  their  place.  Thus,  in  describing 
the  repairs  which  he  executed  at  the  ancient  Temple  of 
the  Sun,  which  had  not  only  fallen  into  ruin,  but  had 
actually  been  buried  under  a  covering  of  dust,  like  that 
which  conceals  the  ruined  edifices  of  Babylonia  at  the 
present  day,  Nabonidus  tells  us  that  he  found  records  of 
Burnaburyash  and  of  Khammurabi. 

"  I  beheld  within  it  the  written  name  of  Khammurabi,  the  old 
king,  who,  seven  hundred  years  before  Burnaburyash,  had  erected  the 
temple  of  the  sun  and  the  tower  upon  the  old  foundation." 


144  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

From  this  passage  the  date  of  Khammurabi  is  fixed 
at  about  B.C.  2200.  In  a  temple  at  Sippara,  Nabonidus 
found  inscriptions  of  Shagashaltiyash,  who,  he  says, 
reigned  eight  hundred  years  before.  These  inscriptions 
had  been  vainly  sought  for  by  Esarhaddon  and  Nebu- 
chadnezzar ;  Nabonidus  carefully  restored  them  to  their 
place,  in  company  with  his  own  records.  Among  the 
remains  of  the  staged  tower  at  Ur,  Nabonidus  found 
inscriptions  of  Dungi,  the  ancient  king  of  that  city. 
In  the  city  of  Kharran  Nabonidus  rebuilt  a  temple,  which 
had  formerly  been  restored  by  Sardanapalus  ;  the  latter 
king  had,  so  Nabonidus  tells  us,  found  there  the  buried 
cylinder  of  Shalmaneser  II.  (B.C.  860-825) : — 

"  I  summoned  men  from  all  parts,  from  Gaza,  on  the  borders  of 
Egypt,  on  the  upper  sea  beyond  the  Euphrates,  to  the  lower  sea  : 
the  kings,  princes,  governors,  and  men  from  all  parts,  whom  the 
moon-god  and  the  sun-god,  my  lords,  and  the  goddess  Ishtar,  my 
lady,  had  subjected  to  me,  to  build  Ekhulkhul,  the  house  of  the  moon- 
god,  my  lord  and  helper,  which  stands  in  the  city  of  Kharran,  and 
which  Sardanapalus,  king  of  Assyria,  son  of  Esarhaddon,  king  of 
Assyria,  the  prince  who  preceded  me,  had  built.  In  a  favourable 
month,  on  the  appointed  day  which  the  sun-god  and  Bimmon  had 
announced  to  me  in  a  dream,  I  laid  the  foundation  of  the  temple, 
and  built  up  its  brick-work,  in  the  wisdom  of  Ea  and  Merodach,  with 
incantations,  with  the  art  of  the  brick-god,  the  lord  of  foundation 
stones  and  of  bricks,  .  .  .  with  joy  and  exultation,  upon  the  in- 
scribed foundations  of  Sardanapalus,  king  of  Assyria,  who  had  dis- 
covered here  the  inscribed  foundations  of  Shalmaneser,  son  of  Ashur- 
nasirpal.  With  palm-wine,  grape-wine,  oil,  and  honey  I  sprinkled 
the  walls.  More  than  the  kings  my  fathers,  I  strengthened  its 
walls  and  adorned  its  structure." 

Among  the  temples  restored  by  Nabonidus,  there 
was  one  of  almost  inconceivable  antiquity :  namely,  that 


THE   DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  145 

of  the  sun- god  at  Sippara ;  we  know  from  the  contracts 
that  the  priests  of  this  sanctuary  possessed  great 
wealth ;  nevertheless,  at  this  time  it  was  very  much 
"  out  of  repair  "  : — 

"  I  brought  the  sun-god  out  of  his  temple,  and  placed  him  in 
another  house  ;  I  pulled  down  that  temple  and  sought  for  its  old 
inscribed  cylinder.  I  made  excavations  to  the  depth  of  eighteen 
cubits  beneath  the  ground,  and  there  the  sun-god  allowed  me  to 
find  the  inscriptions  of  Naram-Sin,  son  of  Sargon,  which  for  three 
thousand  two  hundred  years  no  king  who  preceded  me  had  found." 

The  figures  here  given  by  Nabonidus,  which  would 
make  the  date  of  Sargon  about  3,800  years  before 
Christ,  have  naturally  excited  astonishment  and  some 
incredulity  among  modern  scholars.  But  when  we 
consider  the  exactness  with  which  the  Babylonians 
seem  to  have  made  their  calculations,  and  the  care  with 
which  they  preserved  their  records,  it  seems  rash  to 
put  the  chronology  of  Nabonidus  too  lightly  aside. 
Moreover,  even  if  this  particular  date  should  appear 
a  little  too  remote,  there  are  many  other  reasons  for 
thinking  that  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin  lived,  at  any  rate, 
many  centuries  before  Khammurabi,  who  was  king  of 
Babylon  about  B.C.  2200. 

It  may  be  hoped  that  these  few  extracts  from  the 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  inscriptions  give  some  idea  of 
the  care  with  which  these  people  preserved  their  official 
records,  written  on  the  cylinders  that  were  buried 
among  the  foundations,  and  on  the  slabs  that  adorned 
the  walls  of  the  palaces  and  temples.  We  have  other 
proofs,  however,  among  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  of 


146  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

the  completeness  of  the  system  of  chronology  which 
the  priests  of  Ashur  and  Bel  possessed.  Besides  dupli- 
cate copies,  which  were  kept  in  the  royal  libraries,  of 
the  records  on  the  cylinders  and  slabs,  and  besides 
other  documents  of  an  historical  character,  which  were 
composed  from  time  to  time,  such  as  the  "  synchronous 
history  ''  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  or  the  "  Babylonian 
Chronicle,"  lists  of  kings  and  governors  have  been 
found,  which  are  of  as  much  importance  for  chronology 
as  the  Roman  lists  of  consuls.  The  Assyrians  named 
each  year  after  some  governor,  high  official,  or  the  king 
himself,  who  thus  became  the  eponym  for  that  year, 
like  the  first  archon  at  Athens ;  and  lists  of  such 
eponyms  have  been  found  at  Nineveh,  covering  the 
period  from  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century  before 
Christ  to  the  middle  of  the  seventh.  The  king  was 
always  eponym  for  one  of  the  years  of  his  reign.  One  of 
these  lists  adds  in  a  few  words  the  chief  events  of  each 
year;  and  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  mentioned  in  the  ninth 
year  of  Ashur-dan,  king  of  Assyria,  and  identified  by 
modern  astronomers  with  the  almost  total  eclipse, 
visible  at  Nineveh,  which  occurred  on  June  15th, 
B.C.  763,  has  enabled  the  Assyrian  chronology  to  be 
brought  into  relation  with  our  era,  and  also  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  chronological  list  of  Babylonian  kings 
in  Greek,  known  as  the  Canon  of  Ptolemy,  and  drawn 
up  in  the  course  of  the  second  century  after  Christ, 
with  the  result  that  the  clay  tablet  and  the  Greek  list 
are  shown  to  agree  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner. 
The  Canon  of  Ptolemy  also  agrees  with  the  lists  of 


THE   DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  147 

Babylonian  kings  written  on  clay  tablets,  which  give 
the  number  of  the  years  that  they  reigned. 

All  that  we  know,  then,  of  the  chronological  system 
of  the  Babylonians  induces  us  to  put  a  certain  confi- 
dence in  their  statements  of  dates. 

The  connection  of  this  discussion  on  the  reliability 
of  the  Babylonian  dates  with  Tello  will  appear  when  it 
is  learnt  that  inscriptions  of  Naram-Sin,  who,  according 
to  Nabonidus,  reigned  before  B.C.  3700,  have  been 
found  among  these  ruins  by  M.  de  Sarzec.  Buried  in  a 
pile  of  masonry  belonging  to  restorations  of  a  com- 
paratively late  date,  he  discovered  an  alabaster  vase 
inscribed  with  the  words  : 

"Naram-Sin,  king  of  the  four  regions," 

that  is  to  say,  of  the  north,  south,  east,  and  west, 
according  to  the  title  adopted  by  the  later  monarchs  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria.  The  capital  of  Naram-Sin  and 
his  father  Sargon  seems  to  have  been  Agane,  close  to 
Sippara,  on  a  canal,  called  by  Pliny  Narragas,  which 
unites  the  Tigris  with  the  Euphrates  some  distance  to 
the  north  of  Babylon ;  but  the  dominion  of  these  kings 
appears  to  have  extended  far  beyond  the  walls  of  their 
city.  They  were  undoubtedly  of  Semitic  race :  this  is 
clear  from  their  own  names,  and  from  the  Semitic 
language  of  the  few  inscriptions  which  have  been  found 
of  their  time,  including  a  second  alabaster  vase,  bearing 
the  name  of  Naram-Sin,  found  by  M.  Oppert,  but  after- 
wards lost  in  the  Tigris,  and  the  famous  egg-shaped 
object  of  variegated  steatite,  dedicated  by  Sargon  to 
K  2 


148  NEW   LIGHT   ON   THE    BIBLE. 

the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Sippara ;  the  latter  is  now  in 
the  British  Museum. 

Other  inscriptions  from  Tello  would  seem,  to  judge 
from  the  form  of  the  cuneiform  character,  of  an  even 


FRAGMENT  OF  THE  VULTURE-STELA. 


more  remote  date  than  Naram-Sin.  They  belong  to  a 
time  when  Tello,  then  called  Sirpulla,  or  Lagash,  was 
the  head  of  an  independent  State,  for  they  bear  the 
names  of  Khaldu,  Ur-Nina,  and  Akurgal,  kings  of  that 
city.  Some  of  the  slabs  on  which  these  inscriptions 
are  engraved  bear  rude  sculptures  in  relief,  belonging 
to  the  very  earliest  period  of  art.  The  "  Eagle  and 


TEE   DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  149 

Lion  tablet,"  of  the  time  of  Ur-Nina,  exhibits  an  eagle 
with  its  claws  fixed  into  the  backs  of  two  lions,  facing 
different  ways :  an  almost  heraldic  device.  The 
"  Vulture-Stela,"  carved  in  the  time  of  the  son  of  the 
last-named  monarch,  is  a  more  important  monument. 
It  formed,  when  it  was  complete,  a  slab  of  considerable 
height  and  breadth,  three  inches  thick,  carved  and 
inscribed  011  both  sides ;  the  chief  scene  represented 
appears  to  be  the  burial  of  a  pile  of  corpses  after  a 
battle ;  priests,  or  their  attendants,  carrying  baskets  on 
their  heads  in  the  attitude  of  the  Athenian  canephoroe, 
bring  sacrificial  offerings  for  the  dead,  according  to  the 
wide-spread  custom  of  antiquity;  above,  in  the  air, 
hover  a  flock  of  vultures,  holding  human  limbs  and 
heads  in  their  beaks  and  claws. 

The  inscriptions  on  these  monuments  of  the  kings 
and  governors  of  Lagash  are  in  the  Accadian  language. 
We  have  seen  in  an  earlier  chapter  that  the  cuneiform 
characters  and  the  system  of  writing  in  use  among  the 
Assyrians  and  Babylonians  were  ill-suited  to  the  needs 
of  a  Semitic  language,  and  were  probably  derived  from 
a  non-Semitic  race.  Here,  in  these  monuments  from 
Tello,  we  see  this  very  non-Semitic  race  living  among 
the  cities  of  Babylonia,  and  apparently,  for  a  time, 
independent  in  certain  parts  of  its  Semitic  neighbours. 

There  was  a  great  mixture  of  races  in  Chaldsea 
from  the  earliest  times,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
Berosus.  The  Book  of  Genesis  indicates  to'us  which 
were  the  principal  branches  of  the  human  family  that 
inhabited  that  region ;  they  were  two  entirely  distinct 


150  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

stems  :   the  descendants  of  Gush,  the  son  of  Ham,  and 
the  descendants  of  Asshur,  the  son  of  Shem. 

"  And  Gush  begat  Nimrod  :  he  began  to  be  a  mighty  one  in  the 
earth. 

"  He  was  a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord  :  wherefore  it  is  said, 
Even  as  Nimrod,  the  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord. 

"  And  the  beginning  of  his  kingdom  was  Babel,  and  Erech,  and 
Accad,  and  Calneh,  in  the  land  of  Shinar. 

"  Out  of  that  land  went  forth  Asshur,  and  builded  Nineveh,  and 
the  city  Rehoboth,  and  Calah, 

"  And  Resen  between  Nineveh  and  Calah  :  the  same  is  a  great 
city." 

Now,  it  was  the  descendants  of  Gush,  the  Accadians, 
who  appear  to  have  made  the  first  advances  in  civiliz- 
ation ;  so  much  so  that  the  Assyrians  and  Semitic 
Babylonians  borrowed  from  them  their  system  of  writing 
and  their  sacred  literature.  Ur  was  a  Semitic  city,  if 
we  may  judge  from  the  inscriptions  and  from  the 
names  of  many  of  her  kings ;  and  this  inference  would 
agree  with  the  Biblical  account  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees 
as  the  home  of  the  family  of  Abraham.  There  is  a 
small  votive  tablet  of  black  stone  which  contains  a 
purely  Semitic  inscription  of  the  time  of  Dungi: 

"  Dungi  the  powerful,  king  of  Ur  and  king  of  the  four  regions, 
who  has  built  Eshitlam,  the  temple  of  Nergal,  his  lord,  at  Cutha." 

Lagash,  on  the  other  hand,  seems  to  have  been  a 
centre  of  Accadian  civilization,  for  all  the  inscriptions 
found  there  are  in  the  Accadian  language.  As  far  as 
it  is  possible,  too,  to  conclude  from  the  sculptures  found 
at  Tello,  the  type  of  the  inhabitants  was  quite  distinct 
from  that  of  the  Semitic  Babylonians  and  Assyrians, 


THE    DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  151 

so  familiar  to  us  from  the  bas-reliefs  of  Nineveh.  But 
the  intercourse  of  the  two  races  must  have  begun  at  a 
very  early  period.  "Sargon  and  Naram-Sin  had  already 
borrowed  the  Accadian  system  of  writing.  Lagash  was 
conquered  by  the  kings  of  Ur,  as  Ur  itself  was  taken 
by  the  kings  of  Nisin  and  Larsa.  What  we  can  learn, 
then,  of  the  civilization  of  Lagash  must  throw  some 
light  upon  the  state  of  culture  of  the  rest  of  Chaldsea. 

The  period  during  which  Lagash  was  subject  to  the 
kings  of  Ur  and  other  neighbouring  monarchs  is  marked 
in  the  inscriptions  of  Tello  by  the  disappearance  in  them 
of  the  title  of  king,  and  the  substitution  for  it  of  the 
designation  patesi,  or  priestly  governor. 

But  though,  instead  of  kings,  we  soon  begin  to  find 
patesis,  or  priestly  governors  of  Lagash,  the  latter  seem 
to  have  been  hereditary  chieftains,  enjoying  considerable 
freedom,  and  acting  with  the  independence  of  feudal 
princes.  They  inscribed  their  names  on  the  buildings 
they  erected  in  the  same  manner  as  the  kings.  The 
oldest  of  the  patesis,  to  judge  from  the  form  of  the 
written  character,  were  En-annadu,  his  son,  Entena, 
and  his  grandson,  also  named  En-annadu. 

Of  the  time  when  Lagash  was  subject  to  the  kings 
of  Ur  we  have  one  or  two  inscriptions  which  clearly 
state  the  political  subjection  of  the  city.  There  is  a  cylin- 
drical seal  which  has  long  been  known  to  archaeologists; 
the  inscription  which  it  bears  is  thus  translated  : — 

"To  the  god  Adar,  the  mighty  lord  of  Lagash,  Kilulla-guzala, 
son  of  Urbabi,  has  dedicated  this  for  the  life  of  Pungi,  the  powerful 
prince,  the  king  of  Ur." 


152  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Another  inscription  was  found  by  M.  de  Sarzec ;  it 
runs  as  follows  : — 

"To  .  .  .  daughter  of  the  goddess  Bau,  his  Lady,  for  the 
preservation  of  the  life  of  Dungi,  the  powerful  warrior,  king  of  Ur, 
king  of  Sumer  and  Accad,  Ghala-lammu,  son  of  Lukani,  priestly 
governor  of  Lagash  [offers  this]." 

The  title  "  King  of  Sumer  and  Accad "  implies 
sovereignty  over  the  principal  regions  of  Babylonia, 
and  was  one  of  the  titles  borne  by  all  later  kings  who 
ruled  over  Babylonia,  such  as  Sargon,  Esarhaddon, 
Sardanapalus,  Nabopolassar,  and  Cyrus. 

But  the  most  flourishing  period  of  Lagash  seems  to 
have  been  the  time  when  Gudea  was  pafesi,  or  priestly 
governor,  over  this  city  :  at  least,  if  we  may  judge  from 
the  remains  which  M.  de  Sarzec  has  discovered,  and 
from  others  acquired  before  his  excavations,  and  now  to 
be  seen  at  the  British  Museum.  The  great  palace  laid 
bare  by  the  French  vice-consul  is  built  principally  with 
bricks  impressed  with  the  stamp  of  Gudea,  the  only 
exceptions  being  certain  parts  built  by  Ur-Bau,  one  of 
his  predecessors  or  successors,  and  much  later  resto- 
rations by  the  Gra?co-Parthian  princes  of  Characene. 
A  short  description  of  the  palace  of  Gudea  may, 
perhaps,  be  given  here. 

The  palace  stands  on  an  immense  quadrangular  plat- 
form of  unbaked  bricks,  two  hundred  and  eighteen 
yards  square  and  thirteen  yards  high ;  the  cement 
employed  was  liquid  clay,  which  has  so  united  itself 
with  the  unburnt  bricks  as  to  form  a  mass  very 
nearly  homogeneous.  The  sides  of  the  platform  slope 


THE   DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  153 

considerably  from  the  plain,  and  are  ascended  by  a  steep 
staircase.  The  orientation  of  the  building  is  worth 
remark,  for,  like  the  later  edifices  of  Mesopotamia,  but 
unlike  the  Egyptian  temples,  its  four  corners,  not  its 
sides,  face  the  four  cardinal  points.  Upon  the  platform 
stands  the  house  (57  yards  by  33  yards),  built  of  baked 
bricks,  which  have  become  red  and  yellow  in  colour  by 
their  passage  through  the  kiln ;  they  all  bear  on  their 
lower  surface  the  name  and  titles  of  Gudea.  The  north- 
eastern facade  is  evidently  the  principal  one,  for  it  has 
two  wide  entrances,  and  is  decorated  in  the  peculiar 
Chaldsean  style  also  observed  at  Eridu  and  at  Erech, 
by  a  continuous  series  of  semi-circular  projections,  like 
half-columns,  which  vary  the  whole  surface  of  the  wall. 
The  outer  walls  of  the  edifice  are  more  than  two  yards 
thick,  and  give  immense  solidity  to  the  structure.  The 
arrangement  of  the  rooms  is  much  like  that  of  later 
Assyrian  or  modern  Oriental  palaces  ;  they  are  built 
round  court-yards  of  different  sizes,  into  which  they 
open  ;  all  the  light  they  receive  is  from  the  door-ways, 
for  there  are  no  windows.  The  apartments  around  the 
largest  of  the  court-yards  evidently  formed  the  selamlik, 
if  we  may  borrow  the  Turkish  term  :  the  part,  namely, 
reserved  for  the  prince  and  his  male  attendants,  and 
including  the  reception-rooms.  A  smaller  court-yard 
forms  the  centre  of  the  harem;  in  this  ovens  were 
found.  A  third  group  of  chambers  composed  the  Khan, 
or  offices  and  lodgings  of  the  slaves.  The  rooms  were 
probably  vaulted,  but  no  trace  of  the  roof  now  remains ; 
they  were  paved  with  bricks,  and  before  all  the  principal 


154  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

doors  lay  a  threshold  of  marble  or  alabaster.  The 
absence  of  architectural  decoration  is  very  remarkable; 
if  there  was  any  adornment,  it  must  have  consisted 
chiefly  in  draperies.  The  superstition  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  gloomy  mansion  is  shown  by  the  votive 
figures,  tablets,  and  amulets  found  buried  beneath  the 
brick  pavement,  sometimes  in  cavities  constructed  on 
purpose  to  receive  them. 

None  of  the  doors  which  formerly  closed  the  en- 
trances into  the  chambers  were  found;  they  had  been 
constructed  of  wood  and  bound  with  copper;  but  the 
sockets  in  which  their  pivots  turned  were  discovered  in 
many  cases,  and  sometimes  still  in  position.  These  sockets 
are  rough  blockn  of  diorite,  the  upper  surface  of  which 
is  smoothed  and  hollowed  out  in  the  middle  to  receive 
the  bronze  point  of  the  door-post ;  by  the  side  of  the 
hollow,  Grudea's  name,  with  a  votive  inscription,  is 
inscribed.  The  roughness  of  the  blocks,  compared  with 
certain  peculiarities  of  the  statues  carved  out  of  the 
same  material,  shows  very  clearly  that  the  diorite  was 
not  hewn  out  of  a  quarry,  but  simply  found  in 
natural  pieces  of  various  sizes,  which  were  fashioned 
into  human  figures,  or  door-sockets,  or  stands  for 
vessels,  according  to  the  facilities  that  they  offered 
for  such  a  transformation. 

The  works  of  art  found  by  M.  de  Sarzec  at  Tello  are 
divided  by  M.  Heuzey  into  three  classes:  those  which 
belong  to  an  epoch  of  rudeness  and  simplicity;  those  which 
exhibit  a  sobriety  of  style  and  technique,  and  already  prove 
the  acquisition  of  considerable  skill;  and  those  which  show 


THE    DISCOVERIES   AT    TELLO.  155 

a  studied  delicacy  and  refinement  of  execution,  belong- 
ing to  an  advanced  period.  The  last  class  is,  unfor- 
tunately, only  represented  by  a  few  fragments,  which 
tantalize  us  with  the  desire  for  more.  The  first  class  is 
represented  by  the  "  Vulture-stela "  described  above, 
and  by  other  monuments  of  similar  character;  but  to 
the  second  class  belong  the  most  important  works  of 
art  found  at  Tello :  namely,  the  nine  statues  of  Grudea, 
governor  of  Lagash.  These  figures  are  proved,  by  the 
inscriptions  which  cover  part  of  the  drapery  and  the 
benches  on  which  they  sit,  to  have  been  placed  in 
different  temples,  as  marks  of  devotion  to  certain 
deities ;  they  probably  stood  opposite  to  the  images 
of  the  gods,  and  hence  the  attitude  of  submission,  with 
clasped  hands,  which  marks  them.  At  a  very  late 
epoch  they  must  have  been  brought  within  the  walls  of 
the  palace,  and  placed  in  the  court-yard  where  they  were 
discovered.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted,  in  the  interests 
of  archaeology,  that  the  heads  have  in  all  cases  been 
broken^offby  some  invader  who  overthrew  the  dynasty 
of  Grudea ;  but  this  misfortune  is  partly  repaired  by  the 
discovery  of  two  heads  at  a  distance  from  the  statues. 

The  first  thing  to  remark  about  these  figures  is  the 
material  out  of  which  they  are  carved.  On  the  alluvial 
plains  of  Chaldsea,  where  hardly  a  pebble  is  to  be  found, 
it  is  startling  to  find,  belonging  to  the  earliest  days 
of  civilization,  works  of  art  consisting  of  a  hard  volcanic 
stone,  which  is  only  to  be  procured  from  the  interior 
of  Asia  or  from  the  mountains  of  Egypt.  It  is  a  kind 
of  diorite,  only  less  hard  than  granite  and  porphyry, 


156  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

analogous  to  that  of  which  Egyptian  statues  were 
frequently  fashioned;  and  examination  of  the  inscrip- 
tions shows  that,  in  fact,  this  stone  was  brought  from 
the  "  land  of  Magan,"  a  territory  Avhich  lay  on  the 
coasts  of  Egypt  or  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai.  This  at 
once  says  much  for  the  navigation  and  commerce  of 
those  remote  days.  In  spite  of  the  difficulty  of  working 
with  such  material,  the  artist  has  treated  his  figures 
with  considerable  skill ;  he  has  even  indicated  the  folds 
of  the  drapery  :  a  point  neglected  both  by  the  later 
Assyrians  and  the  Egyptians,  and  first  studied  to  ad- 
vantage by  the  Greeks. 

The  costume  of  Gudea,  as  it  is  represented  in  his 
statues,  consists  simply  of  a  fringed  shawl.  One  end 
of  this  lies  over  the  left  shoulder  in  front ;  the  shawl 
is  then  passed  round  the  back  and  under  the  right  arm, 
which  is  left  bare;  the  other  end  is  again  brought 
round  under  the  right  arm,  and  tucked  inside  that  part 
of  the  garment  which  crosses  the  breast,  thus  firmly 
keeping  the  whole  in  place.  The  Kornan  toga  was 
differently  worn,  for  it  was  flung  over  the  left  shoulder, 
brought  round  behind  under  the  right  arm,  and  again 
passed  over  the  left  shoulder,  so  that  the  end  hung 
down  the  back.  M.  Heuzey  remarks  that  the  dress  of 
Gudea  offers  a  valuable  study  for  artists  depicting 
Biblical  scenes  of  the  earliest  period.  A  curious  re- 
presentation of  fringed  shawls  worn  exactly  as  we  see 
them  in  the  figures  of  Gudea  appears  in  the  well-known 
painting  on  the  wall  of  one  of  the  tombs  at  Beni- 
Hasan,  in  Egypt.  The  date  of  this  fresco  is,  perhaps, 


TSE   DISCOVERIES  AT    TELLO.  157 

not  far  from  that  of  the  statues  of  Tello ;  it  is  of  the 
twelfth  dynasty,  and  probably  some  centuries  before 
B.C.  2000.  The  wearers  of  the  fringed  shawls  in  the 
painting  are  members  of  an  Asiatic  tribe,  bringing 
presents  to  the  governor  of  an  Egyptian  province ;  they 
are  thus  described  by  Prisse  d'Avennes  : — 

"  The  second  tomb,  that  of  Naharse-Numhotep,  military  governor 
and  nomarch  of  the  province,  is  especially  interesting,  both  as  a  work 
of  art  and  on  account  of  the  valuable  information  it  offers  for  the 
history  of  the  country. 

"  On  the  north  wall  the  artist  has  painted  a  band  of  foreigners 
in  the  act  of  being  presented  to  Numhotep  by  two  Egyptian 
functionaries,  the  first  of  whom  is  a  royal  scribe,  holding  in  his  hand 
a  tablet  covered  with  hieroglyphics.  The  nomarch,  leaning  care- 
lessly on  a  staff,  and  surrounded  by  his  dogs,  is  giving  an  uncere- 
monious reception  to  the  strangers,  who  have,  apparently,  been 
attracted  to  Egypt  by  the  report  of  the  fertility  of  the  Nile  Valley. 
They  have  a  peculiar  physiognomy,  aquiline  noses,  and  a  fair  com- 
plexion ;  they  are  dressed  in  rich  stuffs,  with  head-dress  and  shoes 
like  those  of  the  figures  on  Greek  vases.  First  come  two  chiefs 
leading  antelopes  :  one  of  them  is  named  Absha ;  the  other  is  re- 
markable for  a  pearl  attached  to  the  end  of  his  beard.  Then  come 
four  warriors,  armed  with  lances,  bows,  and  clubs.  Then  follow  four 
women  clothed  in  variegated  tunics,  preceded  by  a  young  man 
driving  before  him  an  ass,  which  carries  two  children,  placed  in  a 
sort  of  pannier.  Last  comes  an  ass  loaded  with  household  vessels, 
led  by  a  man  playing  a  lyre,  and  followed  by  a  warrior  armed  with 
a  bow  and  a  club. 

"  This  curious  ethnographical  picture,  carefully  painted  more  than 
two  thousand  years  before  our  era,  has  been  variously  interpreted 
by  travellers  and  authors.  Some  have  seen  here  the  arrival  of  the 
Hebrews,  or  of  Joseph  himself  ;  others  have  thought  that  they  could 
recognise  the  Ionian  type.  The  group  seems  at  first  sight  to 
represent  Greeks,  but  there  are  points  that  do  not  agree  with  this 
idea,  which  was  that  of  Champollion,  who  even  thought  he  could 
read  in  the  inscription  the  word  luni :  lonians.  At  the  present 


158  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

day,  thanks  to  the  science  of  which  he  laid  the  foundation,  his 
pupils  read  above  the  picture  the  words  :  'Arrival  of  thirty-seven 
Aamu,  bringing  mestem.'  This  mestem  was  probably  stibium,  a 
kind  of  eye-salve,  valuable  in  a  country  like  Egypt,  where  ophthal- 
mia has  been  at  all  times  as  common  as  it  is  dangerous." 

Other  figures  found  at  Tello  are  dressed  in  a  stuff 
made  on  the  same  principle  as  velvet  or  plush,  with  a 
long  shaggy  pile  on  the  outer  side,  looking  almost  like 
the  hair  of  an  animal.  It  has  been  recognised  by 
archaeologists  as  probably  identical  with  a  Babylonian 
stuff  which  was  in  later  times  much  exported  from 
Chalda3a  and  Persia  into  Western  countries.  The 
Greeks  called  it  kaunakes,  and  gave  high  prices  for  it  at 
the  markets  of  Sardis — that  great  emporium  for  goods 
coming  from  Persia  and  the  East.  A  comic  description 
of  it  occurs  in  the  Wasps  of  Aristophanes  : — 

"  BDELYCLEON  :  Take  off  your  cloak, 

And  put  this  mantle  on  in  the  same  fashion. 
PHILOCLEON  :  But  how  shall  I  be  able  to  live  and  do  my  duty  as 

a  citizen 

When  this  man  wants  to  suffocate  me  in  this  way  1 
BD.  :  Come,  take  this  and  put  it  on,  and  don't  talk. 
PH.  :  What  is  this  terrible  garment,  in  the  name  of  all  the  gods  ? 
BD.  :  Some  call  it  Persian  stuff,  others  call  it  kaunakes. 
PH.  :  Well,  I  thought  it  was  a  goatskin  of  the  Thymaetids. 
BD.  :  That  is  not  surprising,  as  you  have  never  been  to  Sardis. 

If  you  had,  you  would   know  what  it  is ;  but  as  it  is,  you  do 

not  recognise  it. 
PH.:  I? 

Most  certainly  I  do  not  recognise  it.     It  seems  to  me  most 

like  the  goatskin  cloak  of  Morychus. 
BP.  :  It  is  not  so  ;    for  it  is  of  woven   stuff,  manufactured  at 

Ecbatana. 

It  is  woven  by  the  barbarians  at  great  expense ; 
I  daresay  this  mantle  has  swallowed  up  a  whole  talent  of  wool" 


THE   DISCOVERIES    AT    TELLO.  159 

Two  of  the  seated  statues  of  Gudea  hold  upon  their 
knees  tablets  and  styli,  or  pointed  instruments  for 
writing.  Upon  one  of  these  tablets  is  carefully  marked 
out  the  ground  plan  of  a  building  of  which  we  see  the 
walls,  the  towers,  and  the  gates ;  at  the  side  lies  the 
graduated  rule  that  was  employed  for  measurement.  This 
figure  of  Gudea  represents  the  prince,  in  fact,  as  dedi- 
cating to  the  gods  his  architectural  work  :  as  offering  to 
them  the  plans  of  buildings  which  he  had  designed,  and 
the  drawing  materials  with  which  they  were  marked 
out  and  measured.  The  inscriptions  with  which — in 
accordance  with  the  Mesopotamian  custom — the  drapery 
of  the  statues  and  the  benches  on  which  they  sit  are 
covered,  are  chiefly  composed  of  the  enumeration  of 
various  temples  built  by  Gudea,  which  he  thus 
dedicates  to  the  gods.  The  most  interesting  of  the 
figures — namely,  the  statue  of  the  prince  as  architect,  to 
which  allusion  has  just  been  made — exhibits  a  long 
inscription,  engraved,  as  they  all  are,  in  the  clearest  and 
most  beautiful  characters,  of  which  the  hard  diorite  has 
preserved  almost  every  line  unimpaired.  It  begins  as 
follows  : — 

"  In  the  temple  of  the  god  Nin-girsu,  his  king,  [is  placed]  this 
statue  of  Gudea,  priestly  governor  of  Lagash,  who  has  built  the 
temple  of  Eninnu.  One  ka  of  fermented  drink,  one  ka  of  provisions 
.  .  .  ,  half  a  ka  of  .  .  .  half  a  ka  of  .  .  .  such  are  the 
offerings  that  he  makes.  .  .  . 

"To  the  god  Ningirsu,  the  mighty  warrior  of  the  god  Ellillu, 
[this  is  dedicated  by]  Gudea,  architect  (?),  and  priestly  governor  of 
Lagash ;  the  shepherd  elected  by  the  immovable  will  of  the  god 
Ningirsu  ;  beheld  with  a  favourable  eye  by  the  goddess  Nina;  gifted 
•with  power  by  the  god  Nindara ;  covered  with  renown  by  the 


160  NEW   LIGHT   ON    THE   BIBLE. 

goddess  Bau  ;  son  of  the  goddess  Gatumdug ;  endowed  with 
sovereignty  and  the  sceptre  of  supremacy  by  the  god  Gal-alim ; 
proclaimed  afar  among  living  creatures  by  the  god  Dunsaga  ;  whose 
government  is  placed  upon  a  solid  foundation  by  the  god  Ningiszida 
his  god." 

The  inscription  then  relates  the  construction  of  a 
temple  by  Grudea,  and  the  solemnities  and  purifications 
that  took  place  at  the  time  of  its  dedication.  No 
mourning  was  allowed  during  this  period. 

"  No  grave  was  dug  in  the  burying-ground  of  the  city  ;  no 
corpse  was  interred  (?).  The  kalu  did  not  perform  his  funeral  music 
or  utter  his  lamentations  j  the  wailing-woman  did  not  allow  her 
lamentation  to  be  heard." 

Gudea  describes  the  materials  he  had  brought  from 
various  countries  for  his  building  operations  : — 

"  The  god  Ningii-su  opened  to  him  the  roads  from  the  sea  of 
Elam  to  the  lower  sea.  In  the  mountains  of  Amanus,  the  mountain 
of  cedars,  he  had  cedar-trees  of  great  height  cut  down.  . 
These  cedars  he  employed  to  make  great  gates ;  he  enriched  them 
with  shining  ornaments,  and  placed  them  in  the  temple  of  Eninnu. 
Others  he  used  as  beams  in  the  sanctuary  of  Emahkia. 

"  From  the  mountains  of  Phoenicia  he  brought  stones  and  had 
them  carved  into  blocks ;  he  made  of  them  the  holy  of  holies  of  the 
temple  of  Eninnu.  From  Tidanum  in  the  mountains  of  Phoanicia 
he  brought  shirgal  habbia  stones ;  he  had  them  carved  into  the  form 
of  urpadda,  and  arranged  them  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  the  bars 
of  the  gates.  In  the  country  of  Kagal-adda,  in  the  mountains  of 
Kimash,  he  had  copper  extracted.  .  .  .  From  the  country  of 
Meroe  he  brought  trees.  . 

"  By  his  arms  he  conquered  the  city  of  Anshan,  in  the  land 
of  Elam  ;  its  spoils  he  dedicated  to  the  god  Nin-girsu  in  the  temple 
of  Eninnu.  .  .  . 

"  From  the  mountains  of  the  land  of  Magan  he  had  hard  stone 
brought,  and  had  it  carved  into  a  statue  of  himself.  '  0,  my  king, 
whose  temple  I  have  built,  may  life  be  my  reward  ! '  such  was  the 


STATUE   OF  GUDBA  AS   ARCHITECT. 


162  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

name  that  he  gave  to  this  statue,  and   in  the  temple  of  Eninnu  he 
placed  it." 

This  long  inscription  ends  with  a  curse  upon  those 
who  shall  injure  the  statue  or  remove  it  from  its  place 
in  the  temple ;  and  this  malediction  is  in  the  style  of 
those  which  the  Assyrian  and  late  Babylonian  kings 
invoked  on  all  who  should  disturb  their  records. 

On  another  statue  Gudea  speaks  of  a  New  Year's 
festival  which  he  celebrated  in  honour  of  the  principal 
goddess : — 

"  To  "Ningirsu,  the  powerful  warrior  of  Ellilla,  [this  is  dedicated] 
by  Gudea,  priestly  governor  of  Lagash,  who  has  constructed  the 
temple  of  Eninnu,  consecrated  to  Ningirsu. 

"  Eor  Ningirsu,  his  lord,  he  has  built  the  temple  of  Ekhud,  the 
tower  in  stages,  from  the  summit  of  which  Ningirsu  grants  him  a 
happy  lot. 

"  Besides  the  offerings  which  Gudea  made  of  his  free  will  to 
Ningirsu  and  to  the  goddess  Ban,  daughter  of  Anna,  his  beloved 
consort,  he  has  made  others  to  his  god  Ningiszida. 

"  Gudea,  priestly  governor  of  Lagash,  declared  peace  from  Girsu 
to  Uru-azagga. 

"  That  year  he  had  a  block  of  rare  stone  brought  from  the  country 
of  Magan  ;  he  had  it  carved  into  a  statue  of  himself. 

"  On  the  day  of  the  beginning  of  the  year,  the  day  of  the  festival 
of  Bau,  on  which  offerings  were  made  ;  one  calf,  one  fat  sheep,  three 
lambs,  six  full  grown  sheep,  two  rams,  seven  pat  of  dates,  7  sab 
of  cream,  seven  palm  buds.  .  .  , 

"  Such  were  the  offerings  made  to  the  goddess  Bau  in  the  ancient 
temple  on  that  day.  .  .  . " 


CHAPTEE    VI. 

THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS. 

THE  most  remarkable  archaeological  discovery  of  the 
last  few  years  has,  without  doubt,  been  that  of  the 
collection  of  letters,  written  in  the  cuneiform  character 
and  in  the  Babylonian  language  on  clay  tablets,  which 
lay  buried  beneath  the  ground  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  modern  village  of  Tell  el-Amarna,  on  the  Nile.  It 
is  said  that  a  countrywoman  lighted  upon  these 
treasures  by  chance ;  but  they  quickly  found  their  way 
into  the  hands  of  European  collectors.  Dr.  Budge 
obtained  eighty  of  the  finest  and  best  preserved  of  the 
tablets  for  the  British  Museum ;  the  Eoyal  Museum  at 
Berlin  acquired  a  share  of  the  spoil ;  and  the  Egyptian 
Museum,  which  has  recently  been  removed  from  Boulak 
to  Gizeh,  received  a  smaller  number.  A  few  also  were 
purchased  by  private  collectors  :  for  instance,  those  of 
M.  Bouriant,  and  one  which  M.  Maspero  has  presented 
to  the  Louvre. 

The  site  of  Tell  el-Amarna,  the  modern  Arab  village 
situated,  nearly  190  miles  to  the  south  of  Cairo,  in  a 
sandy  plain  between  the  mountain  chain,  which  here 
recedes  in  the  form  of  a  bay,  and  the  eastern  bank  of 
the  Nile,  has  long  been  known  to  Egyptologists  for  its 


164  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

ancient  remains,  and  especially  for  the  tombs  hewn  in 
the  sides  of  the  neighbouring  hills.  About  fifteen 
centuries  before  Christ,  as  far  as  the  date  can  be  ascer- 
tained, there  stood  on  this  spot  a  city  which  for  the 
time  being  held  the  rank  of  the  capital  of  Egypt  and  of 
her  dependent  States.  Amen-hetep,  or,  in  the  Greek 
form,  Amenophis  IV.,  the  ninth  king  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  who  was  then  reigning,  had  departed  from  the 
traditions  of  his  forefathers,  and  had  adopted  a  new 
religion  of  foreign  origin,  which  enjoined  the  worship 
of  Aten,  or  the  Sun's  Disk,  and  rejected  that  of  Amen, 
the  great  god  of  Egypt,  whose  name  accordingly  the 
monarch  erased  from  the  walls  of  the  temples.  Amen- 
ophis IV.  went  so  far  as  to  change  his  own  name  to 
Chu-en-Aten,  or  the  "Splendour  of  the  Sun's  Disk." 
He  abandoned  the 'great  city  of  Thebes,  which  the  kings 
of  his  dynasty  had  done  so  much  to  enlarge  and  beautify, 
and  he  founded,  on  the  site  of  the  modern  Tell  el- 
Amarna,  a  new  capital,  which  he  called  by  his  own  new 
designation,  Chu-en-Aten.  But  after  his  death,  this 
town,  which  usurped  for  so  brief  a  reign  the  place  of 
Thebes,  was  soon  abandoned  in  its  turn,  and  in 
consequence  of  this  sudden  desertion  it  has  left 
much  clearer  traces  behind  than  greater  cities  which 
have  fallen  slowly  into  decay,  or  been  razed  to  the 
ground  by  victorious  besiegers.  Memphis  has  dis- 
appeared ;  but  the  streets  and  buildings  of  Chu- 
en-Aten  can  still  in  part  be  traced.  The  follow- 
ing description  of  the  remains  is  given  by  Prisse 
d'Avennes : — 


THE    TELL   EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  165 

"The  ruins  now  left  of  this  second  Heliopolis  are  more  than  a 
mile  and  a  quarter  long  and  half  a  mile  broad.  The  town  was 
divided  from  north  to  south  by  a  wide  street,  cut  at  right  angles  by 
cross  streets,  which  marked  off  the  houses  and  other  buildings  into 
numerous  quarters.  The  principal  quarter  lay  to  the  north,  and  con- 
tained temples  and  various  other  buildings,  one  of  which  is  especially 
remarkable  for  its  numerous  pillars  of  brick-work,  showing  the  plan 
of  the  hypostyle  halls  that  stood  here  ;  it  was  probably  a  palace,  but 
it  is  impossible  at  the  present  day  to  determine  its  exact  form  and 
arrangement. 

"  The  temples  were  enclosed  within  walls  of  burnt  brick,  like 
most  of  the  great  edifices  of  this  epoch,  but  ruins  and  traces  of  the 
walls  are  all  that  is  now  left,  and  the  stone  structures  have  been  so 
completely  demolished  that  there  is  no  clear  outline  of  their  inner 
arrangements. 

"Several  dwellings  of  unburnt  brick,  however,  have  not  been 
entirely  destroyed,  but  have  escaped  the  hand  of  man  and  the 
ravages  of  time ;  little  more  than  the  sub-structures  remain  of  them, 
but  these  are  still  able  to  give  a  fairly  exact  idea  of  their  form  and 
distribution.  These  are  the  best  preserved  and  the  most  ancient 
dwellings  in  the  valley  of  thn  Nile. 

"  In  this  capital  of  Chu-en-Aten,  erected  with  all  speed  in  order 
to  form  a  centre  for  the  nrw  sun-worship,  far  from  the  haunts  of  the 
traditional  ideas  which  were  so  constantly  evoked  by  the  monuments 
of  Thebes,  the  builders  were  forced  to  employ  the  most  readily  avail- 
able materials  ;  and  accordingly  sun-dried  bricks  play  a  large  part 
in  all  the  structures. 

"  In  one  of  the  principal  streets  the  two  piers  are  to  be  seen, 
which  formed  the  sides  of  a  pylon;  the  colossal  gateway,  twelve  yards 
wide,  can  only  have  been  surmounted  by  a  vault  made  up  of  several 
concentric  arches,  like  those  of  the  pylons  at  El  Assacif  and  Thebes. 
The  walls  are  eight  yards  thick  ;  the  bricks  are  very  carefully  laid ; 
and  although  they  are  composed  of  a  somewhat  sandy  clay,  they  are, 
even  at  the  present  day,  hard  enough  to  be  used  by  the  inhabitants 
of  the  neighbourhood." 

After  this  description  of  the  remains  of  the  town,  it 
may,  perhaps,  not  be  unacceptable  to  give  from  the 


166  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

same  source  a  short  account  of  some  of  the  paintings  on 
the  walls  of  the  tombs  at  Tell  el-Amarna,  which 
belong  to  the  same  period,  and  refer  to  the  reign  of 
Amenophis  IV.  The  following  scene  represents  the 
monarch  in  the  act  of  making  offerings  to  the  Sun's 
Disk  :- 

"At  first,  the  most  striking  feature  in  this  picture,  which  is 
arranged  with  remarkable  taste,  is  the  irradiation  of  the  sun,  repre- 
sented by  means  of  divergent  lines,  terminating  in  hands  holding 
the  sacred  sign  of  life,  or  simply  open  to  bless  the  chief  personages 
of  the  royal  family  and  to  accept  their  offerings.  Three  altars, 
loaded  with  food  arid  flowers,  divide  the  scene  into  two  principal 
compartments.  On  the  left,  the  Pharaoh  Chu-en-Aten  and  his  wife, 
both  holding  in  their  hands  emblems  that  have  since  been  effaced, 
take  part  in  a  religious  ceremony  in  honour  of  Aten-ra,  the  irradiat- 
ing sun,  which,  at  this  epoch,  through  the  special  devotion  of  the 
Pharaoh  who  is  here  depicted,  represented  the  sole  and  exclusive 
divinity  of  Egypt.  Behind  the  queen,  two  young  princesses,  her 
daughters,  seem  to  be  taking  part  in  the  ceremony  with  all  the 
inattention  proper  to  their  age  :  that  is  to  say,  that  they  are  playing 
with  one  another.  On  the  right,  the  queen-mother,  Thi,  is  represented 
with  one  of  her  grandchildren — -the  Princess  Aten-bek — at  her  side, 
apparently  offering  her  a  basket. 

"  The  lower  compartment  of  the  picture  is  half  filled  with  a  row 
of  secondary  figures,  who,  according  to  the  custom  of  antiquity,  are 
represented  as  of  smaller  stature  than  the  royal  family.  They  are 
the  king's  officers,  female  musicians,  and  servants  busied  in  the 
preparation  of  offerings.  The  picture  was  never  completed,  perhaps 
on  account  of  the  premature  death  of  the  person  for  whom  this  tomb 
was  prepared  ;  or,  perhaps,  on  account  of  the  political  and  religious 
reaction  which  overthrew  the  capital  of  Chu-en-Aten,  and  put  an 
end  to  the  exclusive  worship  of  the  Sun's  Disk." 

Another  painting  in  a  tomb  at  the  same  place 
exhibits  a  royal  chariot  drawn  by  a  pair  of  horses :  a 
subject  which  may  be  of  interest  in  consequence  of  the 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  167 

frequent  mention  in  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  of  gifts 
of  this  kind  from  the  princes  of  Mesopotamia  to  the 
king  of  Egypt  at  this  period. 

"  Compared  with  the  superb  beasts  of  the  feline  or  bovine  species 
which  were  sculptured  and  painted  at  this  same  epoch,  these  horses 
are  depicted  with  incredible  naivete  and  awkwardness.  It  might  be 
thought  that  the  artist  had  never  studied  living  models,  and  yet  he 
had  such  every  day  before  his  eyes.  However  it  may  be,  these 
horses  may  be  reckoned  among  the  finest  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty. 
They  are  represented  walking :  a  pace  which  does  not  offer  the 
beautiful  curves  seen  in.  the  gallop. 

"  Besides  the  painting  of  the  horses,  the  picture  gives  a  good 
example  of  the  harness  and  chariots,  which  at  this  period  showed 
an  admirable  mixture  of  simplicity  and  elegance. 

"The  chariot  is  not  decorated,  but  simply  provided  with  a  wide 
case  to  contain  the  bow,  and  painted  modestly  with  the  favourite 
colours  of  the  Egyptians.  Mention  is  made  in  the  inscriptions  of 
this  date  of  chariots  enriched  with  gold,  silver,  and  agate,  which 
came  from  the  countries  of  Ruten  (Syria)  and  Naharina  (Mesopo- 
tamia). The  harness — much  simpler  than  it  is  generally  seen — is 
covered  with  embroideries  designed  with  as  much  sobriety  as  taste." 

Much  astonishment  was  naturally  excited  by  the 
discovery  of  cuneiform  inscriptions  on  the  site  of  this 
old  Egyptian  town ;  and  the  first  question  to  be 
answered  was  to  what  period  they  were  to  be  assigned. 
The  fact  that  they  were  found  at  Tell  el-Amarna  made 
it  at  first  probable  that  they  belonged  to  the  time  of 
Amenophis  IV.,  in  whose  reign  alone  the  city  of  Chu- 
en-Aten  had  been  a  place  of  importance  ;  and  it  was 
found,  in  fact,  that  several  of  the  letters  were  addressed 
to  "  Nibmuariya "  or  "  Nimmuriya,  king  of  Egypt," 
and  that  others  were  intended  for  the  perusal  of 
"  Napkhurriya "  or  "  Napkhurririya."  These  names, 


168  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

allowing  for  the  difficulty  which  the  Babylonians  and 
Assyrians  had  in  reproducing  Egyptian  words,  were 
seen  to  represent,  although  in  an  outlandish  form,  the 
additional  names  or  prenomens  which  Amenophis  IVr. 
and  his  father,  Amenophis  III.,  assumed  on  their 
accession  to  the  throne  :  namely,  Nefer-kheper-ra  and 
Neb-inat-ra.  The  matter  was  settled  by  a  seal  bearing 
the  prenomen  of  Amenophis  IV.  written  in  the  ordinary 
way,  in  Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  and  some  plaques  of 
glazed  faience  exhibiting  the  prenomen  of  Amenophis 
III.,  also  in  hieroglyphics,  which  were  found  in  the 
company  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.  The  clay 
tablets  were  recognised  to  belong  to  the  period  of  these 
two  monarchs,  and  accordingly  a  date  was  assigned  to 
them  of  fifteen  hundred  years — perhaps  a  little  more 
and  perhaps  a  little  less — before  our  era.  It  must  be 
admitted,  indeed,  that  the  chronology  of  this  period  of 
Egyptian  history  is  somewhat  uncertain. 

In  several  respects  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  are 
unlike  all  other  documents,  inscribed  with  cuneiform 
characters,  that  had  hitherto  been  discovered.  The 
shape  of  many  of  them  resembles  small  pillows  of 
clay.  The  characters,  too,  vary  from  those  that  are 
to  be  seen  in  the  inscriptions  belonging  to  earlier  or 
later  periods  ;  for  few  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  this 
particular  date  are  known.  It  is  remarkable  that 
several  different  forms  of  the  same  character  are  to  be 
observed  in  these  tablets ;  but,  generally  speaking,  a 
difference  of  character  here  goes  with  a  difference  of 
origin ;  those  tablets  that  come  from  one  town  or 


THE    TELL   EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  169 

country  show  the  same  forms.  The  characters  appear 
often  to  have  a  more  archaic  appearance  than  those  of  the 
Assyrian  inscriptions  of  the  fourteenth  or  thirteenth 
centuries,  which  come  next  to  them  in  date  among  the 
already  known  inscriptions  from  Assyria. 

The  Tell  el-Amarna  letters  were  sent  from  many 
parts  of  Western  Asia  to  the  court  of  Egypt.  Some  of 
them  were  written  by  the  scribes  of  Babylonian  princes, 
anxious  to  maintain  friendship  with  the  mighty  Pharaoh, 
whose  suzerainty  extended  to  the  banks  of  the  Eu- 
phrates. One  of  them  comes  from  a  king  of  Assyria. 
Several  of  them  were  sent  by  kings  of  Mitani  and 
Alashiya — territories  probably  situated  near  the  region 
of  Mesopotamia.  Most  of  them,  however,  are  from  the 
native  governors  of  cities  under  the  dominion  of  Egypt, 
in  different  parts  of  Syria,  and  the  land  of  Canaan. 
This  at  once  shows  of  what  historical  importance  these 
documents  are.  They  throw  an  entirely  new  light  on 
the  condition  of  Western  Asia,  and  especially  Syria 
and  Canaan,  at  a  period  probably  not  long  before  the 
exodus  of  the  Israelites.  The  Egyptian  inscriptions  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty  had  already  informed  us  of  the 
conquests  of  the  Pharaohs  in  that  region  from  the 
reign  of  Aahmes  (about  B.C.  1700)  to  that  of  Thothmes 
III. ;  but  for  the  reigns  of  Amenophis  III.  and  his 
son  we  had  very  little  information  with  regard  to  the 
events  that  took  place  among  the  Syrian  tributaries ; 
the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets,  therefore,  create  a  new 
chapter  of  history,  interesting  alike  to  the  student  of 
Egyptian  and  of  Hebrew  literature.  The  historical 


170  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

results,  however,  will  be  discussed  in  subsequent 
chapters.  For  the  present,  it  may  be  worth  while 
to  examine  the  general  character  of  these  early  ex- 
amples of  the  art  of  letter  writing. 

We  here  see  the  epistolary  art  in  a  very  primitive 
stage ;  although  letters  had  been  written  and  despatched 
in  Egypt  for  many  centuries  before  this  time,*  and  in 
the  tombs  of  the  ancient  empire  scribes  are  represented 
in  paintings  and  sculptures  folding  up  and  sealing 
the  small  rolls  of  papyrus  by  means  of  which  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Nile  Valley  communicated  with  one 
another.  It  would  be  an  interesting  question  to  ask 
whether  letters  were  first  written  in  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphics or  in  the  cuneiform  characters  of  Babylon. 
Perhaps,  like  the  two  systems  of  writing,  the  epistolary 
art  had  an  independent  origin  in  both  cases.  But  the 
letters  on  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  are  written  in  the 
cuneiform  character,  and  in  the  Babylonian  language. 
They  are  distinct  proofs  that  the  whole  of  Western 
Asia  was  at  this  period  under  the  influence  of  a  form 
of  culture  which  proceeded  from  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates,  and  that  the  speech  of  Babel  was,  like 
French  in  modern  days,  and  like  Greek  after  the 
Macedonian  conquest,  the  medium  of  communication 
between  civilized  nations  in  the  sixteenth  or  fifteenth 
century  before  Christ.  With  the  language,  the 
Syrians  and  Canaanites,  without  doubt,  adopted  the 
epistolary  forms  of  the  Mesopotamian  valley,  and,  in 

*  For  information  on  the  letters  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  see  Maspero, 
Le  G^nre  epistolaire  chez  les  anciens 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  171 

fact,  we  find  the  letters  written  in  Babylonia  at  an 
earlier  date  than  this  commencing  in  a  similar  or 
identical  manner.  Nevertheless,  there  are  certain 
formula?  in  the  letters  addressed  by  governors  of  towns 
to  the  Egyptian  sovereign  which  were  taken  from  the 
Court  phraseology  of  Thebes. 

The  epistles  of  the  Mesopotamian  kings  to  the 
Pharaoh,  among  the  Tell  el-Amarna  collection,  begin 
with  salutations  as  from  one  prince  to  another,  his  equal 
in  station,  if  not  in  political  power.  The  following  is 
the  manner  in  which  Burraburyash,  king  of  Babylon, 
begins  a  letter  to  Amenophis  IV. : — 

"  To  Nipkhurririya,  king  of  Egypt,  thus  says  Burrabnryash, 
king  of  Karduniyash,  thy  brother  :  '  It  is  well  with  me ;  may  it  be 
well  indeed  with  thee,  and  may  it  be  well  indeed  with  thy  household, 
thy  wives,  thy  children,  thy  land,  thy  great  men,  thy  horses,  and  thy 
chariots.' " 

The  king  of  Alashiya  opens  his  letters  with  a  rather 
more  lengthy  preamble  ;  he  begins  thus  : — 

"  To  the  king  of  Egypt,  my  brother,  thus  says  the  king  of 
Alashiya,  thy  brother  :  '  It  is  well  with  me;  it  is  well  indeed  with 
my  household,  my  wives,  my  children,  my  great  men,  my  horses,  and 
my  chariots,  and  my  lands ;  may  my  brother  be  well  ;  may  it  be  well 
with  thy  household,  thy  wives,  thy  children,  thy  great  men,  thy 
horses,  thy  chariots,  and  thy  lands  !  Behold,  my  brother,  I  have 
sent  my  messenger  to  thee,  in  company  with  thy  messenger,  to  the 
land  of  Egypt.'" 

It  is  not  without  interest  to  notice  that  the  mode 
of  salutation  usual  in  these  ancient  letters  is  that  which 
was  current  among  the  Israelites,  and  has  been  pre- 
served among  the  Semitic  races  to  the  present  day. 


172  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  May  my  brother  be  well "  should  be  literally 
translated,  "Upon  my  brother  be  peace."  With  the 
very  same  words  Jacob  enquired  after  his  uncle  Laban, 
asking  of  the  people  of  Haran  :  "Is  he  well  ? " 
and  they  said  "  He  is  well  "  ;  or  literally,  "  Is  there 
peace  to  him  ?  "  and  they  said  "  There  is  peace."  The 
Hebrew  8/idldm  and  the  Babylonian  shtihnu  are  repre- 
sented in  modern  Arabic  by  the  word  saldm.  Sahim 
aleik,  "  Peace  upon  you,"  is,  to  this  day,  the  ordinary 
salutation  of  Mussulmans  to  one  another. 

The  letters  of  the  natives  of  Egypt  also  began  with 
similar  salutations  ;  for  instance  : — 

"The  captain  of  mercenaries  N".  to  the  captain  of  mercenaries 
N. :  '  Mayest  thou  be  in  good  health  and  in  favour  with  Amen-Ra 
and  the  other  gods.' " 

It  seems,  however,  to  mark  a  distinction  between  the 
epistolary  styles  of  Egypt  and  Babylon,  that  while  the 
latter  requires  the  epistle  almost  invariably  to  begin 
with  the  name  of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  addressed 
("  To  such  an  one  thus  says  such  an  one  "),  the  former 
sets  the  name  of  the  sender  in  the  first  place.  On  this 
point  the  Asiatics  seem  to  give  a  lesson  in  good  manners 
to  their  African  neighbours. 

Some  of  the  letters  discovered  at  Tell  el-Amarna  are 
those  of  a  king  of  Mitani  who  was  connected  through 
several  marriages  with  the  Pharaoh,  and  accordingly 
professes  the  affection  of  a  kinsman  in  the  preamble, 
which  runs  as  follows  in  an  epistle  to  Amenophis  III. : — 

"  To  Nimmuriya,  the  great  king,  king  of  Egypt,  my  brother  and 
my  son-in-law,  who  loves  me  and  whom  I  love,  thus  says  Tushratta, 


THE    TELL   EL-AMAENA    TABLETS.  173 

the  great  king  thy  father-in-law,  who  loves  thee,  the  king  of  Mitanni 
thy  brother  ;  '  I  am  well ;  mayest  thou  be  well ;  may  it  be  well  with 
thy  household ;  may  it  be  well  indeed  with  my  sister  and  the  rest  of 
thy  wives,  with  thy  children,  thy  chariots,  thy  horses,  thy  great  men, 
thy  land,  and  all  that  belongs  to  thee.' " 

One  of  Tushratta's  letters  is  written  to  a  queen  of 
Egypt,  apparently  to  Thi,  the  wife  of  Amenophis  III., 
and  mother  of  Amenophis  IV.  The  writer  offers  salu- 
tations to  his  daughter  Tatum-khipa,  who  had  been 
sent  in  marriage  to  Amenophis  III.,  but  on  the  death  of 
the  latter  was  handed  over  to  his  son  and  successor ;  he 
opens  his  epistle  as  follows  :— 

"To  [Thi]  the  lady  of  the  land  of  Egypt  .  .  .  thus  says 
Tushratta,  king  of  Mitani :  '  May  it  be  well  with  thee ;  may  it  be 
well  with  [Amenophis  IV.]  thy  son  ;  may  it  be  well  with  Tatum- 
khipa,  thy  daughter-in-law  ;  may  it  be  well  indeed  with  thy  lands 
.  .  .  and  with  all  that  thou  hast.' " 

There  is  only  one  letter  from  Assyria  among  the 
documents  ;  it  begins  with  a  somewhat  shorter  preamble 
than  the  rest : — 

"  To  Napkhuririya  [the  great  king],  king  of  Egypt,  my  brother ; 
thus  says  Ashur-uballit,  king  of  Assyria,  the  great  king  thy  brother : 
'  May  it  be  well  with  thee,  with  thy  household,  and  with  thy  land. '" 

The  letters  from  Asiatic  officials  in  the  employment 
of  the  king  of  Egypt  are  naturally  couched  in  terms 
different  from  those  used  by  the  royal  personages,  and 
we  now  meet  with  phrases  borrowed  from  the  court 
language  of  the  ruling  country.  The  Pharaoh  was 
acknowledged  in  Egypt  as  the  son  of  the  sun-god,  and 
even  as  being  himself  a  god.  There  are  many  proofs  of 
this  in  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  of  the  same  date  as 


174  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

the  Tell  el-Amaraa  tablets,  and  alluding  to  the  same 
kings.  Amenophis  III.  actually  acknowledges  himself 
as  the  god  of  Nubia,  and  his  son  ascribes  divinity  to 
him  in  the  inscriptions  on  the  pylon  of  the  temple  of 
Soleb.  In  a  papyrus,  also,  Amenophis  III.  is  men- 
tioned as  one  of  the  gods  of  Memphis,  and  on  a  certain 
stela  his  priests  are  named.  The  same  honours  were 
received  by  his  ancestors.  Thothmes  III.,  the  great 
conqueror  of  Western  Asia,  received  divine  adoration  in 
his  earliest  youth,  and  sacrifice  was  offered  to  him  by 
the  scribe  User-Amen,  in.  his  fifth  year.  Similar  kin- 
ship with  the  gods  was  attributed  under  the  following 
dynasty  to  Rameses  II.,  for  example,  who  is  spoken  of 

as: — 

"Approved  by  the  sun-god,  the  son  of  the  sun-god,  the  eternal 
and  everlasting,  beloved  by  the  gods  Amen-ra-harmachis,  Ptah  of 
Memphis,  Mut  the  lady  of  the  city  of  Asru  .  .  .  who,  like  his 
father  Harmachis,  is  king  on  the  throne  of  Horus  the  living  one  for 
ever  and  ever." 

We  must  not  be  surprised,  then,  when  we  find  the 
Canaanite  governors  of  cities  tributary  to  the  king  of 
Egypt  addressing  their  suzerain  in  the  following 
terms : — 

"  Rip- Adda  says  to  the  lord  of  the  countries,  the  king  of  the 
countries,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  the  universe  :  '  May  the  goddess 
Beltis  of  Byblus  give  power  to  the  king,  my  lord.  At  the  feet  of 
my  lord,  my  sun-god,  I  prostrate  myself  seven  times  and  seven  times.' " 

Ammunira,  governor  of  the  city  of  Beyrout,  thus 
begins  his  letter : — 

"  To  the  king,  my  lord,  my  sun-god,  my  gods ;  thus  says  Ammu- 
nira, a  man  of  the  cities,  thy  servant  and  the  dust  of  thy  feet :  '  At 


THE    TELL    EL-AM ARNA    TABLETS.  175 

the  feet  of  the  king,  my  lord,  my  sun-god,  my  gods,  seven  times  and 
seven  times  I  fall.' " 

The  expression  "  my  gods,"  which  is  frequently 
found  in  these  Canaanitish  letters,  is  exceedingly  re- 
markable, for  it  corresponds  apparently  to  the  Hebrew 
Elohim,  God ;  and  is,  like  the  latter,  a  "  plural  of 
majesty."  Shubandi,  another  governor  of  a  city,  writes 
the  following  salutations  at  the  head  of  his  letter  :— 

"  To  the  king,  my  lord,  my  gods,  my  sun-god,  the  sun  who  is 
from  heaven ;  thus  says  Shubandi,  thy  servant,  the  dust  of  thy  feet, 
the  groom  (?)  of  thy  horses  :  'At  the  feet  of  the  king,  my  lord,  my  sun- 
god  from  heaven,  I  bow  seven  times  and  seven  times,  with  my  heart 
and  with  my  back.'" 

The  mosJi  extravagant  terms  of  adulation  are  used 
by  Abi-milki,  the  governor  of  Tyre,  who  begins  his 
letter  as  follows  : — 

"  To  the  king,  my  lord,  my  gods,  my  sun-god ;  thus  says  Abi- 
milki,  thy  servant :  '  Seven  times  and  seven  times  I  bow  at  the  feet  of 
the  king,  my  lord.  I  am  the  dust  beneath  the  feet  of  the  king,  my 
lord.  My  lord  is  the  sun-god  who  rises  day  by  day  upon  the  lands, 
according  to  the  decree  of  the  sun-god  his  gracious  father,  and  gives 
life  by  his  glorious  voice,  and  speaks  (?)  within  his  sanctuary  (?),  and 
makes  all  lands  to  dwell  in  strength,  peace,  and  abundance,*  and  gives 
forth  thunder  in  heaven  like  the  god  Rimmon  [the  god  of  the  air], 
and  all  lands  are  consumed  with  terror  because  of  his  thunder.' " 

Examples  enough  have  now  been  given  to  show 
what  unmeasured  flattery  was  employed  by  the  officers 
of  the  king  of  Egypt  in  addressing  their  lord  and 
master.  It  seems  to  go  far  beyond  that  which  was 
customary  in  other  ancient  Eastern  courts  or  that 
offered  to  modern  Oriental  sovereigns.  The  kings  of 

*  See  Brit.  Mus.  Edition. 


176  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Assyria  and  Babylon  imagined  themselves  indeed  to  be 
the  especial  favourites  of  the  gods,  and  professed  to  per- 
form all  their  deeds  at  the  instigation  and  under  the 
protection  of  Aslmr  and  Bel ;  but  they  never  supposed 
that  they  were  themselves  divine,  or  had  worship  paid 
to  them.*  The  expressions  used  in  speaking  of  the 
Pharaoh  remind  us  of  the  adulation  offered  to  some  of 
the  Roman  emperors,  not  only  after  their  death,  but 
sometimes  during  their  lifetime ;  we  recall  the  phrase 
"  Dominus  Deus,"  the  "  Lord  God,"  which  was  applied 
to  Domitian.  Martial  says,  in  speaking  of  a  performing 
elephant  in  the  amphitheatre,  that  even  the  brute 
creation  felt  the  divinity  of  CaBsar : — 

"When  the  elephant  kneels  before  thee,  Csesar,  like  a  pious 
devotee,  after  his  victory  over  the  fierce  bull,  he  is  not  acting  at  the 
bidding  of  his  trainer,  or  because  he  has  been  taught  to  do  this,  but, 
believe  me,  because  even  he  feels  the  presence  of  a  god  among  us." 

The  body  of  the  letters  which  follow  the  salutations 
consists  of  short  sentences  strung  together  without  much 
connection,  and  with  many  vain  repetitions.  Sometimes 
a  new  paragraph  or  a  new  subject  is  introduced  by  the 
word  shamtu,  which  means  "  another  thing,"  and  is 
exactly  equivalent  to  a  similar  phrase  used  in  a  similar 
manner  in  the  letters  of  the  native  Egyptians  in  ancient 
times.  The  latter  begin  a  new  paragraph  with  the 
word/?:/,  "another  thing,"  or  ki  zod,  "another  word," 
in  the  following  manner  : — 

"  I  have  obeyed  the  message  sent  me  by  my  lord,  saying  :  '  Watch 
over  the  men  who  are  under  thy  orders.' 

*  Except  perhaps  in  the  case  of  Aslmr -nasir-pal,  before  whose  image 
at  Nimroud  an  altar  was  found. 


THE    TELL   EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  177 

"  Another  thing :  The  horses  of  my  master  are  well ;  I  give  them 
their  corn  every  day. 

"Another  thing:  I  have  obeyed  the  message  sent  me  by  my 
lord,  saying '.  '  Give  the  soldiers  their  rations,  and  also  give  rations  to 
the  Aperiu  who  bring  the  stone  for  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at 
Memphis.'" 

And  so  during  the  rest  of  the  letter. 

The  same  form  appears  in  some  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna 
tablets.  For  example,  Ammunira,  governor  of  Beyrout, 
after  the  salutations  at  the  head  of  his  epistle  which 
have  been  given  above,  continues  thus  : — 

"  Another  thing :  I  have  heard  the  words  of  the  king  my  lord, 
my  sun-god,  my  gods,  and  the  heart  of  thy  servant,  who  is  the  dust  of 
the  feet  of  the  king,  my  lord,  my  sun-god,  my  gods,  rejoiced  greatly 
when  the  breath  of  the  king  my  lord,  my  sun-god,  my  gods,  came 
forth  to  his  servant,  the  dust  of  his  feet. 

"  Another  thing  :  When  the  king,  my  lord,  my  sun-god,  sent  to 
his  servant,  the  dust  of  his  feet,  saying  :  '  Send  out  forces  to  join  the 
soldiers  of  the  king  thy  lord,'  I  obeyed  these  words  with  all  my  heart. 
And  behold  I  sent  all  my  horses,  and  all  my  chariots,  and  all  that  I 
had  that  was  with  the  servant  of  the  king  my  lord,  to  join  the  soldiers 
of  the  king  my  lord.  May  they  shed  the  blood  *  of  the  king's  enemies, 
and  may  the  eyes  of  thy  servant  see  the  eyes  of  the  king  my  lord  ! 

"  Another  thing :  See,  O  king  my  lord,  my  sun-god,  my  gods,  let 
all  that  belongs  to  thy  servant  return  to  him.  Behold,  I  am  a  servant 
of  the  king  and  the  footstool  of  his  feet.  Behold,  I  will  defend  the 
city  of  the  king  my  lord  and  its  citadel,  until  my  eyes  see  again  the 
soldiers  of  the  king  my  lord." 

The  "  soldiers "  frequently  mentioned  in  the  Tell 
el-Amarna  tablets  would  seem  to  be  the  men  that  were 
sent  by  the  king  of  Egypt  to  act  as  the  garrison  of  the 
different  towns  under  his  rule. 

The   introduction  of  new  paragraphs  by  the  words 

*  Literally  :  May  they  drench  the  breasts  of  the  king's  enemies. 
M 


178  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"Another  thing"  or  "Another  word"  remained  the 
usage  of  the  Egyptian  scribes  down  to  a  late  period, 
for  many  Coptic  letters  of  early  Christian  times  retain  it. 

The  employment  of  the  Babylonian  system  of 
writing,  and  still  more  the  use  of  the  Babylonian  lan- 
guage as  the  means  of  communication  throughout 
Western  Asia,  shown  in  the  letters  found  at  Tell  el- 
Amarna,  proves  the  overpowering  influence  of  Baby- 
lonian civilization  in  that  part  of  the  world  during  the 
age  preceding  the  rule  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  in 
Egypt.  None  of  the  letters  in  question  are  written  by 
native  Babylonians  or  Assyrians,  except  those  few  that 
come  from  the  kings  of  Babylon,  Kallimma-Sin,  and 
Burraburyash,  and  the  single  letter  from  Ashur-uballit, 
king  of  Assyria.  The  rest  are  either  from  Canaanite 
officials — who  indeed  spoke  a  Semitic  dialect,  but  one 
quite  distinct  from  the  Babylonian — or  they  come  from 
Mesopotamian  princes,  some  of  whom  (for  instance,  the 
king  of  Mitfmi)  did  not  speak  a  Semitic  language  at  all. 
Among  the  letters  is  one  written  in  the  language  of 
Mitani,  which  cannot  at  present  be  assigned  to  any 
known  family  of  languages ;  even  in  this  the  cuneiform 
characters  are  employed. 

If  any  proof  were  needed  that  the  writers  of  these 
letters  were  not  native  Babylonians,  it  would  be  found 
in  the  frequent  occurrence  of  glosses.  In  many 
passages  of  letters  from  Canaan  we  meet  with  a  Baby- 
lonian word  followed  by  an  oblique  stroke,  after  which 
comes  the  Canaanite  word  that  has  the  same  meaning. 
We  are  enabled  to  recognise  the  second  term  as 


THE    TELL    EL-AMAENA    TABLETS.  l?y 

Canaanite,  because  it  is  generally  identical  with  the 
Hebrew  form  so  far  as  the  latter  can  be  expressed  in  the 
clumsy  cuneiform  system  of  writing;  occasional!}-,  how- 
ever, these  glosses  seem  to  be  Syriac  or  Arabic  words. 
As  an  instance  of  such  glosses,  we  may  quote  the  follow- 
ing passage  in  a  letter  from  Rip-Adda,  governor  of 
Byblus,  to  the  king  of  Egypt : — 

"There  is  no  one  who  will  deliver  me  out  of  the  hand  of  my 
enemies ;  I  am  like  a  bird  caught  in  a  trap — kilubu." 

Here  the  word  "trap  "  represents  the  Assyrian  word 
employed  by  the  scribe,  who  then  adds  the  Canaanite 
gloss  "  kilubu,"  which  any  Hebrew  scholar  will  at  once 
recognise  as  the  word  translated  "basket"  in  the  follow- 
ing passage  of  the  Authorised  Version  :— 

"  Thus  hath  the  Lord  God  shewed  unto  me :  and  behold  a  basket 
of  summer  fruit. 

"  And  he  said,  Amos,  what  seest  thou  ?  And  I  said,  A  basket 
of  summer  fruit." 

But  in  a  passage  of  Jeremiah  the  word  is  used 
exactly  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  letter  of  Rip- Adda; 
our  version  here  translates  it  "  cage  ": — 

"  For  among  my  people  are  found  wicked  men  ;  they  lay  wait,  as 
he  that  setteth  snares  ;  they  set  a  trap,  they  catch  men. 

"  As  a  cage  is  full  of  birds,  so  are  their  houses  full  of  deceit." 

Kilubu,  or  k'lub,  was  in  fact  a  fowler's  basket  of 
wicker-work,  in  which  he  caught  his  defenceless  prey. 
Such  glosses  as  this  in  the  letter  of  Rip-Adda  are  of 
great  interest,  on  account  of  the  light  which  they  throw 
upon  the  language  of  Canaan  at  this  period,  not  long 
before  the  exodus  of  the  Israelites. 
M  2 


180  NEW  LIGHT   ON   THE    BIBLE. 

The  question,  of  course,  arises  :  How  was  it  that  the 
Babylonian  script  and  language  were  so  widely  spread 
over  Western  Asia  at  this  time  ?  Had  there  been  in 
the  period  preceding  the  rule  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty 
in  Egypt  a  conquest  of  these  countries  as  far  as  the 
shore  of  the  Mediterranean  by  the  Babylonians  ?  There 
are  several  indications  that  such  indeed  had  been  the 
case,  but  the  obscurity  of  that  remote  period  of  history 
is  so  dense  that  we  must  be  satisfied  for  the  present 
with  slight  hints  and  suggestions ;  more  will  probably 
be  discovered  before  long.  Among  these  hints  is  the 
statement  of  Manetho,  the  author  of  the  history  of 
Egypt  in  Greek,  composed  nearly  three  hundred  years 
before  Christ ;  much  weight  is  attached  to  his  words 
because  he  was  a  native  of  the  country,  and  had  access 
to  reliable  sources  which  are  not  known  to  us.  Manetho 
tells  us,  in  one  of  the  fragments  still  preserved  of  his 
lost  work,  that  in  the  time  of  the  Hyksos,  or  shepherd- 
kings,  who  ruled  Egypt  for  many  centuries,  and  were 
finally  driven  out  of  the  country  by  the  first  king  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty,  about  B.C.  1700,  the  Assyrians 
were  predominant  in  Western  Asia,  and  the  Hyksos 
built  fortresses  on  the  eastern  frontier  of  Egypt  to 
guard  themselves  against  an  invasion  of  these  powerful 
enemies.  "  Assyrians "  was  a  name  often  indiscrimi- 
nately given  By  Greek  writers  to  the  Babylonians  as 
well  as  their  northern  neighbours,  with  whom  they 
often  formed  one  State.  The  cuneiform  inscriptions 
also  supply  us  with  notices  of  very  early  invasions  of 
Syria  and  Canaan  by  Babylonian  princes.  Sargon, 


THE    TELL   EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  181 

King  of  Agane,  for  instance,  the  father  of  Naram-Sin, 
to  whom  Nabonidus  assigns  the  very  remote  date 
mentioned  in  another  chapter,  is  said,  in  a  mutilated 
astrological  text,  to  have  invaded  Canaan,  and  to 
have  advanced  to  the  shores  of  the  "  upper  sea,"  or 
Mediterranean : — 

"  Sargon  marched  to  the  western  land,  and  conquered  it ;  he  ob- 
tained possession  of  the  four  regions  [i.e.,  North,  South,  East,  and 
West].  .  .  . 

"  Sargon,  following  this  omen,  marched  to  ...  he  had  no 
equal ;  he  spread  his  terror  over  the  land ;  he  crossed  the  western 
sea ;  he  conquered  the  western  land  during  three  years,  and  united 
it  together ;  he  set  up  his  image  in  the  west ;  he  transported  the 
spoil  over  land  and  sea." 

Again  the  Elamite  prince,  Kudurmapuk,  who  per- 
haps reigned  over  Babylonia  shortly  before  the  time  of 
Abraham,*  calls  himself  "  lord  of  the  west  country :"  that 
is  to  say,  of  Syria,  for  that  was  the  name  by  which  this 
country  is  always  alluded  to  in  the  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions ;  the  title  appears  on  a  brick  which  formed  part 
of  a  temple  built  by  this  king,  and  runs  as  follows  : — 

"  To  the  god  Nannar  his  lord,  Kudurmapuk,  prince  of  Syria,  son 
of  Simtishilhak,  when  Nannar  heard  his  prayer,  built  the  temple  of 
E-nun-makh  for  his  own  life  and  the  life  of  his  son  Rim-Sin." 

From  these  indications  it  would  appear  that  from 
the  most  remote  ages  the  powerful  monarchs  of  the 
regions  watered  by  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  began  to 
overrun  from  time  to  time  the  strip  of  fertile  land  along 
the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  which  the  natives  called 

*  The  invasion  of  Chedorlaomer  and  Amraphel  related  in  Genesis  xiv, 
is  another  instance  of  early  Babylonian,  conquests  in.  Syria, 


182  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Canaan,  and  the  Greeks  Phoenicia.  This  country 
became  rich  in  very  ancient  times  on  account  of  the 
trade  in  which  its  inhabitants  began  so  early  to  engage, 
and  the  booty  of  its  cities  excited  the  cupidity  of  Me.so- 
potamian  as  well  as  Egyptian  marauders.  Moreover, 
the  land  of  Canaan  was  the  key  to  the  valley  of  the 
Nile,  and  was  therefore  coveted  by  primitive  generals 
and  statesmen.  The  result  of  these  repeated  conquests 
of  Canaan  and  the  intermediate  territories  was  that  the 
Babylonian  language  and  writing  were  introduced  per- 
force among  the  inhabitants,  just  as  Greek  became  the 
literary  and  diplomatic  language  of  the  same  countries 
in  later  times,  after  the  conquest  of  Alexander.  It  is, 
of  course,  to  be  presumed  that  the  Phoenician  alphabet 
had  not  yet  been  invented.  The  latter  must  have  been 
borrowed  from  the  Egyptians  (if  it  was  so  borrowed,  as 
De  Rouge  first  held)  during  the  centuries  between  B.C. 
1400  and  B.C.  900,  for  in  the  ninth  century  it  is  found 
in  use. 

The  Babylonian  supremacy  in  Western  Asia  must 
have  been  in  abeyance  at  the  time  when  the  Hyksos 
kings  were  driven  out  of  Egypt,  and  the  latter  power 
began  to  gain  a  foothold  in  Syria.  This  took  place  at 
the  beginning-  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  when  Ahmes  I. 
took  Sharhan,  a  city  in  the  south  of  Canaan  below 
Gaza,  included  after  the  exodus  within  the  borders  of 
the  tribe  of  Simeon.  The  third  king  of  the  dynasty, 
Thothmes  I.,  advanced  to  the  northern  parts  of  Ruten, 
or  Syria,  and  subdued  the  native  princes  to  his  rule ; 
he  did  not,  however,  require  further  proof  of  their 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  183 

submission  than  the  payment  of  a  considerable  tribute 
of  gold  and  silver,  and  other  things ;  the  native  kings 
were  allowed  to  retain  their  petty  thrones,  and  even  to 
make  war  upon  one  another,  and  agree  upon  treaties 
between  themselves.  It  was  during  the  rule  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty  that  horses  were  first  brought  into 
Egypt,  where  they  were  hitherto  unknown,  as  part  of 
the  spoil  or  tribute  of  the  princes  of  Euten. 

Besides  the  name  of  Ruten,  the  Egyptians  gave  to 
Canaan  the  designation  of  the  "  divine  land,"  or  the 
"  holy  land."  The  god  Amen,  for  instance,  is  repre- 
sented as  saying  to  the  Pharaoh  : — 

"  I  grant  thee  the  tribute  of  the  enemy,  a  load  of  silver,  gold, 
lapis-lazuli,  and  all  kinds  of  precious  stones  from  the  holy  land." 

The  precious  stones  and  metals  were  brought  into 
Phoenicia  and  Palestine  by  the  trade  of  the  Tyrian  and 
Sidonian  merchants.  Silver  is  mentioned  before  gold 
here,  as  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions,  and  is  an  illustration  of  the  greater  im- 
portance at  that  period  of  the  former  metal. 

The  greatest  conqueror  of  the  eighteenth  Egyptian 
dynasty  was  Thothmes  III.,  who  began  to  reign,  perhaps, 
about  B.C.  1600.  In  his  days  the  cities  of  Syria  rebelled 
against  the  Egyptian  supremacy.  The  Pharaoh,  there- 
fore, undertook  a  series  of  expeditions  into  their  territory. 
A  certain  Tanuni  accompanied  his  sovereign  on  one  of 
his  campaigns  as  royal  chronicler,  and  he  has  left  in  the 
inscriptions  of  his  tomb  an  account  of  it : — 

"  I  followed  the  gracious  god  Thothmes  III.  ;  I  saw  the  victory 
of  the  king  which  he  gained  over  all  the  lands  :  how  he  brought  the 


184  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

princes  of  Tahi  (Phoenicia)  alive  as  captives  to  the  land  of  Egypt ; 
how  he  took  all  their  fortresses  and  destroyed  their  plantations.  .  .  . 
I  put  down  in  writing  the  victories  which  he  gained  over  all  the 
lands  as  soon  as  they  were  accomplished." 

Among  the  towns  or  districts  conquered  by  Thoth- 
mes  III.  during  this  expedition  we  find  mention  of 
Helbon,  or  Chalybon,  so  famous  for  its  wine,  which  alone 
was  drunk  in  later  times  by  the  Persian  kings,  and 
which  is  spoken  of  by  Ezekiel  as  one  of  the  chief 
articles  in  which  the  Tyrian  merchants  traded.  We 
meet  with  the  names  of  Graza,  Zoar,  Megiddo ;  of  Tyre, 
of  Arvad  or  Aradus,  of  Kadesh,  of  Carchemish — all 
familiar  to  us  from  scriptural  or  classical  sources.  The 
conquests  of  Thothmes  extended  as  far  as  the  Euphrates, 
and  even  the  king  of  Assyria  was  forced  to  pay  tribute 
to  him,  as  well  as  the  Hittites,  the  Canaanites,  and 
many  other  nations.  The  conqueror  inaugurated  the 
custom  of  alliance  by  marriage  with  tributary  princes 
by  taking  a  daughter  of  a  Syrian  king  as  his  wife. 
Thothmes  III.  enlarged  the  boundaries  of  the  Egyptian 
empire  to  an  extent  which  none  of  his  predecessors  or 
successors  ever  reached. 

Amenophis  II.  made  an  expedition  as  far  as  the 
Euphrates,  so  that,  apparently,  in  his  time  the  Syrians 
remained  subject  to  the  supremacy  of  Egypt.  Thothmes 
IV.  is  also  said  to  have  subdued  his  enemies  as  far  as 
the  regions  of  Mesopotamia.  We  have  now  reached 
the  time  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets,  for  the  son 
and  successor  of  Thothmes  IV.  was  Amenophis  III. 
According  to  Egyptian  inscriptions,  Amenophis  III, 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  185 

subdued  various  cities  of  Syria  and  Mesopotamia,  and 
he  also  engaged  in  lion-hunting  expeditions  during  his 
stay  in  those  regions.  He  reigned  thirty -four  years, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Amenophis  IV.,  who 
introduced  the  heretical  religion  already  alluded  to. 
In  the  comparatively  short  reign  of  Amenophis  IV.  the 
Egyptian  dominions  in  Western  Asia  seem  to  have 
begun  to  fall  away  from  the  supremacy  of  the  Pharaoh. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS    (continued). 

LETTERS    FROM    MESOPOTAMIAN    PRINCES     TO    THE    KINGS    OF 

EGYPT. 

THE  purposes  for  which  the  kings  of  Mesopotamian 
States  sent  letters  to  the  Pharaoh  were  the  following : 
to  strengthen  their  alliance  with  the  most  powerful 
monarch  of  the  time,  whose  tributary  States  touched 
upon  their  own  borders;  and  to  acquire  some  of  the  gold 
which  was  so  abundant  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  in 
exchange  for  which  they  despatched  valuable  treasures 
of  other  sorts.  In  order  to  cement  their  friendship 
with  their  mighty  neighbour,  they  often  sent  him  their 
daughters  in  marriage,  and  these  unions  were  the  more 
readily  accepted  or  proposed  by  the  Pharaoh  because 
these  princesses  brought  with  them  from  the  banks  of 
the  Euphrates  an  exceedingly  handsome  dowry.  Thus 
the  custom  of  intermarriage  between  the  royal  families 
of  Egypt  and  of  Western  Asia  had  already  begun.  As 
we  have  seen,  Thothmes  III.  obtained  the  hand  of  a 
Syrian  princess ;  in  later  times  Barneses  II.  had  a 
Hittite  wife ;  and  doubtless  there  were  many  other  cases 
of  the  same  sort.  The  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  show  us 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  187 

that  Thothmes  IV.  married  a  princess  of  Mitani,  and 
that  his  son,  Amenophis  III.,  received  two  wives  from 
the  royal  family  of  that  country,  in  addition  to  the 
Mesopotamia!!  princess  Thi,  who  was  his  "  great  wife," 
or  queen.  One  of  these  ladies,  who  was  sent  as  a  wife 
to  Amenophis  III.  at  the  end  of  his  reign,  was  on  his 
death  married  to  his  son  and  successor,  Amenophis  IV. 
Her  name  was  Tatum-Khipa,  and  she  was  the  daughter 
of  the  king  Tushratta.  The  kings  of  Babylon  also  sent 
the  ladies  of  their  family  to  be  the  wives  of  the  Pharaoh; 
both  the  sister  and  the  daughter  of  Kallimma-Sin 

O 

were  espoused  to  Amenophis  III.  On  the  other  hand, 
Egyptian  princesses  were  also  sent  in  marriage  to  foreign 
princes ;  for,  just  as  Solomon  won  the  hand  of  the 
"daughter  of  Pharaoh,"  and  the  Edomite  prince  Hadad 
was  rewarded  with  the  hand  of  the  sister  of  Tahpenes, 
the  Egyptian  queen,  so  the  daughter  of  Amenophis  IV. 
became  the  wife  of  a  son  of  Burraburyash,  king  of 
Babylon.  The  alliances  by  marriage  between  the  royal 
houses  of  Egypt  and  Mitani  are  all  alluded  to  in  a 
much  mutilated  letter  from  King  Tushratta  to  Amen- 
ophis IV.,  from  which  a  few  extracts  may,  perhaps,  be 
given  here : — 

"[To  Amenophis  IV.]  my  son-in-law,  whom  Hove,  and  who  loves 
me  :  thus  says  Tushratta,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  Mitani,  thy 
brother,  thy  father-in-law,  who  loves  thee  :  '  It  is  well  with  me.  May 
it  be  well  with  Thi  [thy  mother],  with  Tatumkhipa,  my  daughter, 
thy  wife ;  may  it  be  well  with  thy  children,  thy  great  men,  thy 
chariots,  and  thy  horses  .  .  .  and  all  that  thou  hast ! 

"'The  father  of  Nimmuriya  [i.e.,  Thothmes  IV.,  father  of  Amen- 
ophis III.,  and  grandfather  of  Amenophis  IV.]  sent  messengers  to 


188  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Artatama,  my  grandfather,  and  asked  for  his  daughter  in  marriage. 
My  grandfather  refused ;  he  sent  five  times  and  six  times,  and  my 
grandfather  would  not  give  her ;  he  sent  again,  and  under  compul- 
sion my  grandfather  gave  her  to  him. 

"'The  messenger  of  Nimmuriya  [Amenophis  III.],  thy  father, 
sent  to  Shutarna  my  father,  and  asked  for  my  father's  daughter, 
my  own  sister,  in  marriage.  .  .  .  He  sent  five  and  six  times,  and 
under  compulsion  my  father  gave  her  to  him.  Nimmuriya  also  sent 
to  me,  and  demanded  my  daughter  in  marriage  .  .  .  and  I  gave 
her  to  him.'  " 

The  rest  of  the  letter  is  too  much  mutilated  to  be 
fully  understood  or  translated ;  but  the  fragments  show 
that  it  was  occupied  with  assurances  of  friendship  to 
Amenophis  IV.,  who  had  lately  come  to  the  throne, 
with  expressions  of  grief  over  the  death  of  Amenophis 
III. ;  with  allusions  to  Thi,  the  queen-mother,  who,  as 
is  usual  in  the  East,  held  a  position  of  great  influence 
at  the  Court  of  her  son,  and  with  an  enumeration  of 
gifts  sent  to  the  king,  his  mother,  and  his  wife. 

The  Princess  Tatum-khipa,  Tushratta's  daughter, 
who,  as  we  have  just  seen,  was  sent  in  marriage  to 
Amenophis  III.,  and  then  handed  over  to  his  son  and 
successor,  took  with  her  a  dowry  which  might  well 
induce  the  Pharaoh  to  make  similar  alliances  with  the 
wealthy  princes  of  Mesopotamia,  who  were  thus  eager 
to  purchase  his  friendship.  The  list  of  objects  of  which 
it  was  composed  covers  two  large  clay  tablets,  now  in 
the  Berlin  Museum  ;  they  are  among  the  largest  tablets 
that  have  ever  been  found,  and  are  covered  with  very 
minute  writing;  even  in  their  present  mutilated  con- 
dition they  contain  about  600  lines.  The  title  of  the 
document  runs  as  follows : — 


THE    TELL   EL-AMAUNA    TABLETS.  189 

"This  is  the  whole  of  the  dowry  which  Tushratta,  king  of 
Mitanni,  gave  to  Nimmuriya,  king  of  Egypt,  his  brother  and  his  son- 
in-law,  when  he  sent  Tutum-khipa,  his  daughter,  to  the  land  of 
Egypt  to  Nimmuriya  to  be  his  wife ;  on  that  day  he  gave  it." 

The  dowry  is  composed  of  an  immense  number  of 
vessels,  instruments,  furniture,  and  other  objects  of  gold 
and  precious  stone,  such  as  lapis-lazuli,  besides  many  of 
silver  and  copper  and  a  few  of  iron.  In  addition  to 
these,  there  are  horses,  and  a  chariot  adorned  with 
gold,-  and  garments  of  variegated  stuffs ;  many  of 
the  metallic  objects  were  evidently  proofs  of  the  great 
skill  of  the  Mesopotamian  smiths  and  jewellers,  for 
some  of  them  were  made  partly  of  gold  and  partly  of 
silver,  or  of  bronze  overlaid  with  the  precious  metals, 
and  they  were  often  encrusted  with  precious  stones. 

The  Princess  Tatum-khipa,  who  took  this  dowry 
with  her  to  Egypt,  is  also  mentioned  by  name  in  a 
letter  from  her  father  to  the  Egyptian  queen- mother 
Thi,  who,  in  consequence  of  the  lady's  marriage  with 
Amenophis  IV.,  had  now  become  her  mother-in-law. 
The  salutations  at  the  head  of  this  letter  have  been 
given  in  a  former  chapter.  The  body  of  the  document 
is  very  much  mutilated ;  it  was  occupied  with  assurances 
of  friendship  towards  Egypt,  and  mentions  certain  gifts 
sent  by  Tushratta  to  the  queen. 

Tushratta  had  also  in  a  former  year  sent  greetings 
to  his  daughter  in  a  letter  to  Amenophis  III.,  written 
quite  at  the  end  of  the  latter  monarch's  reign ;  the  date 
is  proved  by  a  docket  in  Egyptian  hieratic  characters, 
painted  with  black  ink  at  the  end  of  the  letter  by  the 


190  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

keeper  of  the  Pharaoh's  archives.  The  salutations  at 
the  head  of  this  letter  have  already  been  quoted  in  the 
preceding  chapter  as  an  instance  of  the  epistolary  forms 
in  use  at  this  period.  They  are  succeeded  by  the  fol- 
owing  paragraphs  : — 

"  Thus  says  the  goddess  Lshtar,  of  the  city  of  Nina,  the  lady  of 
the  whole  world  :  '  I  will  go  into  the  land  of  Egypt,  the  land  that  I 
love ;  I  will  proceed  thither.'  Behold,  now,  I  will  send  her,  and  she 
shall  go. 

"  Behold,  in  the  time  of  my  father,  the  goddess  Ishtar,  the  Lady, 
went  into  that  land,  and,  as  formerly  she  dwelt  there  and  he  wor- 
shipped her,  so  now  let  my  brother  honour  her  ten  times  more  than 
before.  Let  my  brother  honour  her  with  joy;  and  then  let  him  send 
her  back  and  let  her  return. 

"  May  Ishtar,  the  lady  of  heaven,  guard  my  brother  and  me  a 
hundred  years,  and  may  she  give  great  joy  to  both  of  us,  if  we  do 
what  is  right. 

"  The  goddess  Ishtar  has  been  up  to  me  ;  but  to  my  brother  she 
has  not  been." 

It  appears  from  this  letter  that  the  intercourse  of 
Egypt  with  Western  Asia  was  resulting  in  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  worship  of  the  latter  region  into  the  valley 
of  the  Nile.  This,  in  fact,  took  place  to  such  an  extent 
that  Amenophis  IV.,  the  successor  of  the  king  to  whom 
this  epistle  is  addressed,  finally  apostatized,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  last  chapter,  from  the  religion  of  his  fore- 
fathers. A  curious  episode  in  the  religious  history  of 
Egypt  may  be  compared  with  the  sending  of  the  image 
of  Ishtar,  or  Ashtoreth,  mentioned  above ;  it  is  the 
introduction  of  the  worship  of  the  Semitic  Ashtoreth 
into  the  island  of  Pharos,  mentioned  by  several  ancient 
writers ;  she  was  known  subsequently  as  the  Pharian 


THE    TELL   EL-AMAUNA    TABLETS.  191 

Isis,  since  her  worship  was  assimilated  to  that  of  the 
kindred  Egyptian  goddess.  The  rites  of  Mesopotamia 
prescribed  the  moving  of  the  images  of  the  gods  from 
place  to  place ;  religious  processions  appear  to  have 
been  frequent  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  and  their 
stoppage  by  Nabonidus  was  imputed  to  him  by  the 
priests  as  a  grievous  crime,  which,  indeed,  probably  led 
to  his  overthrow. 

We  have  seen  that,  besides  his  daughter,  Tushratta's 
sister  had  also  been  sent  in  marriage  to  the  king  of 
Egypt.  Her  name  was  Gilu-khipa,  and  she  was  the 
daughter  of  the  king  Shutarna,  Tushratta's  father.  The 
discovery  of  her  name  in  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets* 
was  an  interesting  confirmation  of  an  Egyptian  inscrip- 
tion in  hieroglyphics  upon  a  scarabaeus  belonging  to  the 
reign  of  Amenophis  III.,  which  states  that — 

"  Kirgipa,  the  daughter  of  Shutarna,  prince  of  Mesopotamia,  was 
brought  to  His  Majesty,  together  with  three  hundred  and  seventeen 
of  the  ladies  of  her  train." 

The  name  Gilu-khipa  appears  as  Kirgipa  in 
Egyptian,  because  that  language  did  not  contain  the 
letter  /,  but  represented  it  by  r.  This  princess  is  men- 
tioned by  her  brother  Tushratta  in  the  following  letter 
to  Amenophis  III.  :— 

"  To  Nipmuariya,  king  of  Egypt,  my  brother,  thus  says  Tush- 
ratta, king  of  Mitani,  thy  brother:  'I  am  well;  mayest  thou  be  well, 
may  Giju-khipa,  my  sister,  be  well,  may  thy  palace,  thy  wives,  thy 
children,  thy  great  men,  thy  army,  thy  horses,  thy  chariots,  thy 
lands  be  well  indeed  ! 

*  See  article  by  the  author  in  "  Zeitschrift  f iir  agyptische  Spraclie  " 
(1890),  p.  113. 


192  NEW  LIGHT   ON   THE   BIBLE. 

" '  When  I  took  rny  seat  upon  the  throne  of  ray  father,  I  was 
young,  and  Pirkhi  had  done  evil  *  things  to  my  land,  and  had  slain 
his  lord  ;  but  on  account  of  this,  I,  and  those  who  were  friendly 
with  me,  for  good  fortune  did  not  abandon  me,  smote  our  enemies 
on  account  of  the  evil  things  they  had  done  in  my  land,  and  I  slew 
the  men  that  had  slain  my  brother  Artashumara,  every  one  of  them. 

"  '  Because  thou  wast  friendly  with  my  father,  on  account  of 
that,  I  send  and  tell  thee  this  news.  When  my  brother  hears  it, 
he  will  be  glad.  My  father  loved  thee,  and  thou  didst  love  my 
father.  .  . 

" '  [The  Hittites  made  war  upon  me,  but]  .  .  .  when  the 
enemy  invaded  my  land,  the  god  Rimmon,  my  lord,  gave  them  into 
my  hand,  and  I  slew  them.  There  was  not  one  left  to  return  to  his 
own  country. 

" '  Behold,  I  send  to  thee  out  of  the  spoil  of  the  Hittites  a 
chariot  and  a  pair  of  horses,  one  slave-boy,  and  one  slave-girl. 

" '  As  a  gift  to  my  brother,  I  send  five  chariots  and  five  pairs  of 
horses. 

"  '  As  a  gift  to  Gilu-khipa,  my  sister,  I  send  a  pair  of  gold 
bracelets,  a  pair  of  gold  earrings,  a  golden  bowl,  and  one  vase  of 
precious  stone  full  of  precious  ointment. 

"  '  Behold,  I  have  sent  Giliya,  my  messenger,  and  Tanip-ipri.  Let 
my  brother  send  them  back  speedily,  and  let  them  bring  back  news 
speedily.  When  I  hear  of  the  gifts  of  my  brother  may  I  rejoice. 

" '  Let  my  brother  ask  for  good  things  from  me,  and  let  my 
brother  send  his  messengers,  and  when  they  receive  my  brother's  gifts 
I  shall  hear  of  it.'  " 

We  have  seen  that  Amenophis  III.  was  also  allied 
by  marriage  with  the  royal  family  of  Babylon ;  and 
among  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  is  actually  a  letter 
from  the  Pharaoh  himself  to  Kallimma-Sin,  king  of 
Babylon,  in  the  Babylonian  language,  referring  to  the 
Babylonian  wife  whom  he  had  already  married,  and  to 
another  whose  hand  he  demands. 

*  This  word  is  derived  from  a  preposition  meaning  before,  against; 
and  it  has  the  signification  of  contrary,  hostile. 


THE    TELL   EL-AMAUNA    TABLETS.  193 

It  would  seem  from  this  that  a  Babylonian  scribe 
was  kept  at  the  Egyptian  court  at  this  period  in  order 
to  interpret  the  despatches  received  from  Western  Asia, 
and  to  answer  them  in  the  language  that  was  then 
the  general  medium  of  international  communication  in 
that  region.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  epistolary  forms 
of  Babylon  are  preserved.  The  king  of  Babylon,  who 
was  sufficiently  powerful  in  these  days  of  Egyptian 
preponderance  to  oblige  even  the  Pharaoh  to  address 
him  with  deference,  and  almost  in  an  apologetic  tone, 
had  refused  to  send  his  daughter  to  Egypt  until  he  was 
assured  of  the  welfare  of  his  sister,  who  was  already  an 
inmate  of  the  house  of  Pharaoh.  The  following  is  the 

CJ 

first  part  of  the  letter  of  Amenophis  : — 

"To  Kallimma-Sin,  king  of  the  land  of  Karduniyash,  my  brother, 
thus  says  Nipmuariya,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
thy  brother  :  '  It  is  well  with  me  ;  may  it  be  well,  indeed,  with  thee, 
with  thy  household,  thy  wives,  thy  children,  thy  great  men,  thy 
horses,  thy  chariots,  and  thy  country  ! ' 

"  Behold,  I  have  heard  the  word  which  thou  hast  sent  to  me, 
saying  thus:  'Behold,  thou  seekest  my  daughter  in  marriage.  But 
my  sister  whom  my  father  gave  thee  has  been  long  with  thee,  and 
no  one  has  seen  her  to  know  whether  she  be  alive  or  dead.'  These 
are  thy  words,  which  thou  hast  sent  me  on  thy  tablet.  If  thou  wilt 
send  a  priest  who  knows  thy  sister,  and  who  has  spoken  with  her 
and  held  intercourse  with  her,  then  let  him  speak  with  her.  The 
men  whom  thou  hast  sent  are  simply  messengers.  .  . 

"  When  thou  sentest  word  to  me  thus  :  '  Thou  didst  speak  to  my 
messengers,  when  thy  wives  were  assembled  and  stood  before  thee, 
saying  thus  :  "  See  your  mistress,  who  stands  before  you  "  ;  and  my 
messengers  did  not  know  whether  she  be  my  sister  who  is  with  thee 
or  not.' 

"  Behold,  thou  didst  send  word  to  me  thus  :    '  My  messengers  did 

N 


194  NEW   LIGHT    ON  THE    BIBLE. 

not  know  her.'  Whom  canst  thou  mention  that  can  know  her? 
Why  hast  thou  not  sent  a  priest  who  can  tell  thee  the  truth  that 
thy  sister  is  well,  and  thou  shalt  tell  him  to  enter  and  see  her  house, 
and  her  favour  with  the  king  I "  ... 

In  a  letter  subsequently  received  by  Amenophis  III., 
the  king  of  Babylon  gives  his  consent  to  the  marriage 
of  his  daughter  with  the  Pharaoh.  He  says : — 

"  As  for  Sukhartu,  my  daughter,  whom  thou  didst  send  to  ask  in 
marriage,  .  .  .  send  messengers  and  let  them  take  her." 

After  the  death  of  Kallimma-Sin,  a  king  named 
Karaindash.  sat  upon  the  throne  of  Babylon ;  he  is  thus 
named  in  the  inscription  upon  a  brick  which  once 
formed  part  of  a  temple  that  he  built  :— 

"  To  the  goddess  Nana,  the  lady  of  E  anna,  his  lady,  has 
Karaindash,  the  mighty  king,  king  of  Babylon,  king  of  Shumir  and 
Accad,  king  of  the  Kassites,  king  of  Karduniyash,  built  the  temple 
at  E-aima." 

Karaindash  was  succeeded  by  Kurigalzu,  who,  in  his 
turn,  was  followed  by  Burnaburyash,  or  Burraburyash, 
in  the  time  of  Amenophis  IV.  of  Egypt.  The  latter 
received  several  letters  from  Burraburyash,  which  are 
to  be  found  among  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  ;  but 
before  quoting  them,  let  us  see  what  previous  know- 
ledge we  possessed  of  this  king.  He  is  mentioned  in 
the  following  terms  on  a  clay  tablet  which  contains 
a  record  of  certain  treaties  and  wars  between  Babylonia 
and  Assyria  in  early  times ;  the  document  begins 
thus : — 

"Karaindash,  king  of  Babylon,  and  Ashur-bil-nishishu,  king  of 
Assyria,  made  treaties  with  one  another,  and  tendered  an  oath  to  one 
another  with  regard  to  this  territory. 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  195 

"  Busur-ashur,  king  of  Assyria,  and  Burnaburyash,  king  of 
Karduniyash,  treated  of  this  territory  and  defined  the  boundaries. 

"  In  the  time  of  Ashur-uballit,  king  of  Assyria,  the  Kassites  fell 
away  from  Karakhardash,  king  of  Karduniyash,  son  of  Muballitat- 
sirua,  daughter  of  Ashur-uballit,  and  killed  him  ;  and  they  raised 
Nazibugash,  the  son  of  nobody,  to  be  king  over  them. 

"  [Ashur-uballit]  marched  to  the  land  of  Karduniyash  to  avenge 
Karakhai'dash  ;  he  killed  Nazibugash,  king  of  Karduniyash,  and 
placed  the  young  Kurigalzu,  son  of  Burnaburyash,  to  reigu  upon  the 
throne  of  his  father." 

We  also  possess  bricks  from  a  temple  restored  by 
Burraburyasli,  exhibiting  the  following  stamp  : — 

"  To  the  sun-god,  the  great  lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  the  high 
judge  of  the  Anunnaki,  who  gives  life  to  Larsa,  has  Burnaburyash, 
the  mighty  king,  king  of  Babylon,  king  of  Shumir  and  Accad, 
built  and  restored  the  temple  .  .  .  which  for  many  ages  had  fallen 
to  decay." 

Among  the  many  works  of  restoration  undertaken 
by  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  Nabonidus,  in  the  sixth 
century  before  Christ,  this  monarch  repaired,  as  he  tells 
us,  certain  buildings  erected  or  restored  by  Burraburyash. 
Allusion,  however,  has  been  made  to  this  in  a  former 
chapter,  and  some  of  the  passages  have  been  quoted,  so 
that  they  need  not  be  repeated  here.  Let  us  proceed 
to  enquire  in  what  terms  Burraburyash  sought  to  assure 
his  alliance  with  the  king  of  Egypt ;  the  following  is 
one  of  the  letters  that  he  addressed  to  Amenophis  IV. : — 

[After  salutations.] 

"  When  my  father  and  thy  father  spoke  good  words  with  one 
another  they  sent  fair  gifts  to  one  another.  Did  they  not  also  make 
fair  demands  of  one  another?  Now  my  brother  has  sent  me  two 
manehs  of  gold  as  a  gift.  Now,  send  me  much  gold,  as  much  as  thy 
father,  or  send  me  even  half  as  much  a-s  thy  father.  Why  hast  thou 

N    2 


196  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

sent  two  manehs  of  gold  ?  There  is  much  work  now  in  the  temple, 
and  I  have  undertaken  much  to  carry  it  out.  Send  me  much  gold ; 
and  whatever  thou  desirest  in  my  land,  send  me  word  and  let  them 
take  it  to  thee. 

"  In  the  time  of  Kurigalzu,  my  father,  all  the  Canaanites  sent  to 
him,  saying  thus  :  'We  go  to  Kannishat  to  rebel  [against  Pharaoh]  ; 
let  us  make  an  alliance  with  thee.'  My  father  sent  this  message  to 
them,  saying  thus  :  '  Leave  speaking  with  me  to  incite  me  [against 
Pharaoh].  If  you  make  war  upon  the  king  of  Egypt,  my  brother, 
and  make  an  alliance  with  another,  shall  I  not  march  against  you,  and 
ravage  your  country  ? '  .  .  .  My  father  would  not  listen  to  them 
for  the  sake  of  thy  father.  Now  the  Assyrians  are  seeking  my 
favour ;  have  I  not  sent  word  to  thee  of  what  they  have  said  ?  Why 
have  they  invaded  thy  territory  1  If  thou  remainest  friendly  with 
rne,  they  will  do  thee  no  harm. 

"  For  a  gift  to  thee,  I  send  three  manehs  of  lapis-lazuli,  and  five 
pairs  of  horses,  with  five  wooden  chariots." 

In  another  letter  Burraburyash  alludes  to  the 
daughter  of  Pharaoh,  who  had  become  the  wife  of  his 
son.  But  the  object  of  the  Mesopotamian  princes  in 
writing  to  one  another  was  not  merely  political,  or  to 
strengthen  themselves  against  the  attacks  of  enemies 
by  seeking  the  friendship  of  Pharaoh,  and  by  giving 
him  their  daughters  in  marriage.  They  had  also  com- 
mercial objects  in  view.  In  these  early  days  the  kings 
were  the  great  merchants.  In  the  imperfectly  organized 
condition  of  society  in  which  the  States  of  Western 
Asia  and  of  the  Valley  of  the  Nile,  although  at  the  head 
of  the  civilization  of  their  time,  found  themselves  in  the 
sixteenth  century  before  Christ,  the  monarch  united  all 
the  chief  functions  of  the  State  in  his  own  person,  and 
took  the  lead  in  all  manifestations  of  human  activity. 
He  was  often  high  priest,  general  of  the  array,  chief 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  197 

architect,  and  also  he  was  the  chief  merchant  of  the 
State,  and  into  his  hands  the  wealth  of  the  country  was 
collected.  There  are  many  proofs  of  this  in  ancient 
times.  The  kings  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  are  represented  to 
us  as  merchant-princes,  and  even  as  late  as  the  sixth 
century  before  Christ  Ezekiel  says  to  the  prince  of 
Tyre  :- 

"  With  thy  wisdom  and  with  thine  understanding  thou  hast 
gotten  thee  riches,  and  hast  gotten  gold  and  silver  into  thy  treasures. 

"  By  thy  great  wisdom  and  by  thy  traffic  hast  thou  increased  thy 
riches,  and  thine  heart  is  lifted  up  because  of  thy  riches." 

The  Jewish  kings  monopolised  the  trade  in  balsam 
and  dates,  and  the  Arabian  princes  that  in  foreign  per- 
fumes ;  the  Lydian  kings  were  the  first  merchants  of 
their  country ;  the  tyrant  of  Corinth  was  a  slave-dealer. 
As  for  the  king  of  Egypt,  we  are  told  that  his  servants 
who  went  abroad  to  promote  his  gains  and  carry  on  his 
trade  were  the  only  Egyptians  who  were  allowed  with- 
out censure  to  travel  away  from  their  own  country; 
such  was  the  horror  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Valley 
of  the  Nile  had  of  foreign  customs  and  religions,  and 
such  was  their  dread  of  contamination  from  the  latter. 
But  the  most  vivid  picture  we  possess  of  the  royal  mer- 
chants of  antiquity  is  the  account  of  the  trade  between 
Hiram  of  Tyre  and  King  Solomon,  and  of  their  united 
commercial  enterprises  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  in  the  Bed  Sea.  Perhaps  we  may  be 
allowed  to  reproduce  it  here  : — 

"  Hiram,  the  king  of  Tyre,  had  furnished  Solomon  with  cedar 
trees  and  fir  trees,  and  with  gold  according  to  all  his  desire ; 


198  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

then    King    Solomon  gave    Hiram     twenty    cities    in    the   land    of 
Galilee. 

"  And  Hiram  sent  to  the  king  six  score  talents  of  gold. 

"  And  King  Solomon  made  a  navy  of  ships  in  Ezion-geber,  which 
is  beside  Eloth,  on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  in  the  land  of  Edom. 

"And  Hiram  sent  in  the  navy  his  servants,  shipmen  that  had 
knowledge  of  the  sea,  with  the  servants  of  Solomon. 

"And  they  came  to  Ophir,  and  fetched  from  thence  gold,  four 
hundred  arid  twenty  talents,  and  brought  it  to  King  Solomon. 

"  And  the  navy  also  of  Hiram  that  brought  gold  from  Ophir 
brought  in  from  Ophir  great  plenty  of  almug  trees  and  precious 
stones. 

"  Now  the  weight  of  gold  that  came  to  Solomon  in  one  year  was 
six  hundred  threescore  and  six  talents  of  gold. 

"Beside  that  he  had  of  the  merchantmen,  and  of  the  traffick  of 
the  spice  merchants,  and  of  all  the  kings  of  Arabia,  and  of  the 
governors  of  the  country. 

"  For  the  king  had  at  sea  a  navy  of  Tharshish  with  the  navy  of 
Hiram  :  once  in  three  years  came  the  navy  of  Tharshish,  bringing 
gold  and  silver,  ivory  and  apes,  and  peacocks. 

"  So  King  Solomon  exceeded  all  the  kings  of  the  earth  for  riches 
and  for  wisdom. 

"  And  all  the  earth  sought  to  Solomon,  to  hear  his  wisdom  which 
God  had  put  in  his  heart, 

"  And  they  brought  every  man  his  present,  vessels  of  silver  and 
vessels  of  gold,  and  garments,  and  armour,  and  spices,  horses,  and 
mules,  a  rate  year  by  year. 

"  And  Solomon  gathered  together  chariots  and  horsemen,  and  he 
had  a  thousand  and  four  hundred  chariots  and  twelve  thousand  horse- 
men, whom  he  bestowed  in  the  cities  for  chariots,  and  with  the  king 
at  Jerusalem. 

"  And  the  king  made  silver  to  be  in  Jerusalem  as  stones,  and 
cedars  made  he  to  be  as  the  sycomore  trees  that  are  in  the  vale,  for 
abundance. 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  109 

"And  Solomon  had  horses  brought  out  of  Egypt,  and  linen  yarn  : 
the  king's  merchants  received  the  linen  yarn  at  a  price. 

"  And  a  chariot  came  up  and  went  out  of  Egypt  for  six  hundred 
shekels  of  silver,  and  an  horse  for  an  hundred  and  fifty  :  and  so  for 
all  the  kings  of  the  Hittites,  and  for  the  kings  of  Syria,  did  they 
bring  them  out  by  their  means." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  servants  of  Solomon  who 
carried  out  his  commercial  transactions  are  called  the 
"king's  merchants."  Similar  messengers,  or  "king's 
merchants,"  are  mentioned  in  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets. 
The  king  of  Alashiya  sends  the  following  letter  to 
Amenophis  III. : — 

[After  salutations.] 

"  My  brother,  send  back  my  messenger  quickly  and  safely,  and 
let  me  hear  of  thy  good  health.  My  brother,  send  back  this  man, 
who  is  rny  merchant,  safely  and  quickly.  Have  not  my  merchant 
and  my  ship  brought  thy  wares  (?)  with  them  1 " 

East  Africa  was  the  great  gold  country  of  ancient 
times.  It  was  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  without 
doubt,  that  Ophir  was  situated.  Solomon  sent  directly 
to  this  region  for  much  of  the  gold  that  was  brought  to 
him,  but  in  the  time  of  Amenophis  III.  and  his  son, 
gold  reached  the  markets  of  Western  Asia  through 
Egypt,  the  dominions  of  which  extended  far  to  the 
south  of  its  own  boundaries.  So  we  find  the  Mesopo- 
tamian  princes  especially  requesting  the  Pharaoh  to 
send  them  gold  in  return  for  the  copper,  or  perfumes,  or 
other  wares  which  they  sent  to  him.  The  following  is 
a  letter  to  Amenophis  III.  from  Tushratta,  king  of 
Mitani,  who,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  closely  allied 
by  various  marriages  with  the  royal  family  of  Egypt: — 


200  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

[After  salutations.] 

"  As  for  thy  ancestors,  they  were  most  friendly  with  my 
ancestors,  and  thou,  also,  wast  exceedingly  friendly  with  my  father. 
Now,  if  thou  and  I  shall  be  friendly  together,  thou  shalt  be  multi- 
plied ten  times  more  than  thy  father.  May  the  gods  that  we  love 
favour  this  alliance — namely  :  Rimmon,  my  lord,  and  Amen  !  May 
they  answer  our  prayers  for  ever,  as  at  the  present  time  ! 

"  Since  my  brother  has  sent  Mani,  his  messenger,  saying  thus : 
'  My  brother,  give  me  thy  daughter  in  marriage,  to  be  the  lady  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,'  let  not  my  brother's  heart  be  sick  ;  did  I  not 
say  this  formerly"?  As  my  brother  desired,  I  showed  her  to  Mani, 
and  he  saw  her ;  and  when  he  saw  her,  he  admired  her  greatly.  In 
peace  shall  they  take  her  to  the  land  of  my  brother;  and  may 
Ishtar  and  Amen  fashion  her  according  to  the  heart  of  my  brother ! 

"  Giliya,  my  messenger,  repeated  to  me  my  brother's  words,  and 
when  I  heard  them  they  were  good,  and  I  rejoiced  greatly,  saying 
thus  :  '  Bring  this  to  pass  between  us,  that  we  may  be  friendly  with 
one  another.'  Behold,  according  to  these  words  we  will  be  friendly 
with  one  another  for  ever. 

"  When  I  sent  to  my  brother  and  said  thus  :  '  I  and  my  brother 
will  be  exceedingly  friendly  with  one  another,'  I  also  said  thus : 
'My  brother  shall  return  to  me  ten  times  more  than  to  my  father.' 

"  So  I  asked  much  gold  of  my  brother,  saying  thus  :  '  Multiply 
it  to  me  more  than  to  my  father.'  Let  my  brother  multiply  it  to 
me.  Thou  didst  send  much  gold  to  my  father;  thou  didst  send  him 
a  great  quantity  of  gold  and  great  masses  of  gold  :  cakes  of  gold — 
as  if  it  were  copper — shalt  thou  send  to  me. 

"  I  send  my  messenger,  Giliya,  to  my  brother,  and  I  ask  him 
thus  :  '  Let  my  brother  return  to  me  ten  times  more  than  he  did  to 
my  father,  and  let  him  send  me  much  unworked  gold.'  Thus  I 
say  to  my  brother :  '  Thy  vessels  which  my  grandfather  made  I 
will  make,'  .  .  .  and  so  also  I  say  :  '  The  gold  that  my  brother 
sends  let  him  send  for  the  dowry  [of  my  daughter,  whom  he  is 
about  to  marry].' 

"Behold,  now,  I  send  to  my  brother,  and  let  my  brother 
multiply  friendship  to  me  more  than  to  my  father.  Behold,  I  ask 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  201 

gold  of  my  brother,  and  the  gold  I  ask  of  my  brother  I  have  been 
twice  to  ask  ;  first,  for  the  .  .  .  and  secondly,  for  the  dowry. 

"  Let  my  brother  send  me  much  unworked  gold,  and  let  my 
brother  send  me  more  gold  than  he  did  to  my  father.  In  my 
brother's  land  gold  is  multiplied  like  dust.  May  the  gods  grant  that 
gold  may  be  multiplied  in  my  brother's  land  as  now,  and  ten  times 
more  than  now  !  Let  not  the  gold  that  I  ask  for  make  the  heart  of 
my  brother  sick  ;  let  me  not  make  the  heart  of  niy  brother  sick. 
Let  my  brother  send  me  exceedingly  large  quantities  of  unworked 
gold,  and  whatever  my  brother  desires  for  his  house  let  him  send 
and  take  it ;  and  I  will  give  my  brother  whatever  gift  he  desires. 

"  This  land  is  my  brother's  land,  and  this  house  is  my  brother's 
house. 

"  Behold,  I  have  sent  my  messenger  Giliya  to  my  brother ;  let 
not  my  brother  despise  him.  Let  him  dismiss  him  quickly  and  let 
him  go.  When  I  hear  of  my  brother's  gift  I  shall  rejoice  greatly ; 
I  shall  value  my  brother's  gift  for  ever.  These  words  which  we  send 
to  one  another,  may  the  god  Rimmon,  my  lord,  and  Amen,  allow 
.  .  .  and,  as  now,  may  they  fashion  them  according  to  their  own 
will  !  As  now  we  love  one  another,  so  for  ever  may  we  love  one 
another ! " 

The  letter  concludes  with  an  enumeration  of  gifts 
sent  by  Tushratta  to  Amenophis  III.,  including  several 
objects  of  gold  inlaid  with  lapis-lazuli  and  other 
precious  stones,  ten  pairs  of  horses,  ten  chariots  with  all 
their  fittings,  and  thirteen  slave-girls. 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  to  find  that  after  these 
urgent  requests  for  gold  from  the  Pharaoh,  Tushratta 
sent  such  a  treasure  of  gold  vessels  and  ornaments  with 
his  daughter,  whom,  as  he  says  in  this  letter,  he  married 
to  Amenophis  III.  The  dowry  of  Tushratta's  daughter 
has  already  been  described  above.  But  the  explanation 
is  given  in  this  letter  itself :  part  of  the  unworked  gold 
obtained  by  Tushratta  from  Egypt  was  actually  sent 


202  NEW  LIGHT    ON    TEE    BIBLE. 

back  as  his  daughter's  dowry  in  the  form  of  vessels  and 
furniture  of  elaborate  workmanship,  and  adorned  with 
jewels.  It  must  be  supposed  that  Tushratta  kept  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  the  gold  for  himself,  and  if  he 
returned  much  of  it  with  his  daughter  it  was  because  he 
was  anxious  to  purchase  peace  at  any  price  by  pre- 
serving friendship  with  the  all-powerful  Pharaoh. 

Not  only  the  king  of  Mitani,  but  other  princes  of 
Western  Asia  send  demands  for  gold  to  the  land  of 
Egypt,  where  "gold  is  as  dust."  The  latter  phrase 
resembles  expressions  which  occur  in  the  Bible  more 
than  once,  when  the  amassing  of  great  treasures  by 
wealthy  princes  is  spoken  of.  Zechariah  says : — 

"  Tyre  did  build  herself  a  stronghold,  and  heaped  up  silver  as  the 
dust,  and  fine  gold  as  the  mire  of  the  streets." 

It  is  said  of  Solomon,  in  the  passage  quoted  above: — 

"And  the  king  made  silver  to  be  in  Jerusalem  as  stones." 

On  account  of  the  treasures  of  gold  which  came  to 
Egypt  from  the  more  southern  regions  of  Africa,  we 
find  the  king  of  Assyria  sending  for  a  quantity  of  the 
precious  metal  in  a  letter  to  Amenophis  IV.,  inscribed 
on  one  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets : — 

[After  salutations.] 

"  When  I  saw  thy  messengers  I  rejoiced  greatly.  I  sent  for  thy 
messengers  to  come  into  my  presence. 

"  I  send  as  a  gift  for  thee  a  chariot  .  .  .  and  two  white  horses 
.  .  .  one  chariot,  and  a  seal  of  lapis-lazuli. 

(<  Gold  is  like  dust  in  thy  country, 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  203 

"  My  father,  Ashur-nadin-akhi,  sent  messengers  to  Egypt,  and 
they  sent  him  twenty  talents  of  gold. 

"  If  thou  art  favourably  disposed  towards  me,  send  and  let  thy 
messengers  take  whatever  thou  desirest." 

In  a  letter  quoted  above,  from  Burraburyash,  king 
of  Babylon,  to  Amenophis  IV.,  in  which  the  writer 
seeks  to  confirm  his  alliance  with  the  Egyptian  monarch, 
there  is  a  similar  request  for  gold,  which  was  to  be  sent 
in  exchange  for  other  wares.  Apparently,  Amenophis 
IV.  was  not  active  in  his  commercial  transactions,  to 
use  a  modern  term,  with  Babylonia,  for  in  the  following 
letter  we  find  Burraburyash  complaining  that  the  precious 
metal  which  he  desired  for  the  building  of  a  temple  was 
not  arrived  in  sufficient  quantities.  The  writer  says  : — 

[After  salutations.] 

"  From  the  time  of  Karaindash,  and  from  the  time  when  thy 
father's  messengers  came  before  my  father  until  now,  they  have  been 
friendly.  Now,  I  and  thou — we  will  be  friendly. 

"  Thy  messengers  have  come  hither  three  times,  but  they  have 
not  brought  any  good  gift ;  and  therefore  I  have  not  sent  thee  any 
good  gift.  I  have  lost  nothing,  and  I  have  deprived  thee  of  nothing  (?). 

"  Thy  messenger  whom  thou  hast  sent  has  not  paid  the  full 
amount  of  the  twenty  manehs  of  gold." 

In  another  letter  Burraburyash  says  : — 

"  Send  thy  messengers  and  let  them  take  whatever  thou  desirest 
from  my  country  ;  and  I  will  send  my  messengers  and  let  them  take 
what  I  desire  from  thy  country." 

We  can  imagine  that  Solomon  sent  letters  similar  to 
these  to  Hiram  and  the  other  princes  with  whom  he 


204  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

exchanged  the  wares  of  his  own  country  for  the  pro- 
ducts of  theirs. 

The  predecessor  of  Burraburyash,  Kallimma-Sin, 
some  of  whose  letters  to  Amenophis  III.  are  quoted 
above,  also  sent  demands  for  gold  to  Egypt,  and  with 
the  same  urgency,  on  account  of  building  operations 
which  he  had  undertaken ;  when  the  work  is  finished  he 
will  not  require  gold,  nor  would  he  accept  even  the 
immense  sum  of  3,000  talents ;  unless  the  gold  arrives 
at  once  he  will  not  send  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  the 
Pharaoh. 

Another  prince  who  carried  on  commercial  transac- 
tions with  the  Egyptian  monarch  was  the  king  of 
Alashiya.  It  is  difficult  to  conjecture  where  this 
country  lay ;  it  must  have  had  a  sea-board,  because  the 
king  sent  his  messengers  in  ships  to  Egypt ;  and  as  it  is 
mentioned  in  the  Egyptian  inscriptions  in  connection 
with  Mesopotamia  and  Syria,  it  would  seem  to  have 
touched  upon  those  regions.  One  thing  seems  certain : 
and  that  is  that  Alashiya  produced  copper  in  large 
quantities,  for  this  is  the  commodity  that  the  king  of 
that  country  sends  to  Egypt  in  exchange  for  other 
wares.  It  seems  that  copper  was  found  in  ancient 
days  in  the  Lebanon  mountains,  in  Cilicia,  in  the 
kingdom  of  Israel,  and  in  the  country  of  Edom ; 
although  by  far  the  best  in  quality  came  from  Cyprus. 
There  was  no  copper  in  Egypt,  so  that,  without  doubt, 
the  West  Asiatic  merchants  could  command  a  high 
price  for  this  metal.  It  is  remarkable,  however,  that 
the  king  of  Alashiya  asks  for  silver,  not  gold ;  yet  all 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  205 

the  silver  in  Egypt  must  have  come  through  foreign 
trade.  The  following  is  the  most  complete  of  his 
letters  : — 

"  To  the  king  of  Egypt,  my  brother,  thus  says  the  king  of  the 
land  of  Alashiya,  thy  brother :  '  It  is  well  indeed  with  me,  with  my 
household,  my  wives,  my  children,  my  great  men,  my  horses,  my 
chariots,  and  my  country.  May  it  be  well  indeed  with  my  brother, 
with  thy  household,  thy  wives,  thy  children,  thy  great  men,  thy 
horses,  thy  chariots,  and  thy  country. 

" '  Behold,  my  brother,  I  have  sent  my  messenger,  in  company 
with  thy  messenger,  to  the  land  of  Egypt. 

"  '  Behold,  I  have  sent  thee  five  hundred  weight  of  copper ;  as 
a  gift  to  my  brother  I  have  sent  them.  My  brother,  lay  it  not  to 
heart  that  there  is  little  copper  in  thy  country  ;  for  the  hand  of  the 
god  Nergal  [the  deity  of  Hades]  slew  all  the  men  in  my  country, 
and  there  were  no  workers  in  copper ;  but,  my  brother,  lay  it  not 
to  heart. 

"  '  Send  thy  messenger  back  with  my  messenger  speedily,  and 
whatever  copper  thou  desirest,  my  brother,  I  will  send  to  thee. 

" '  My  brother,  do  thou  send  me  much  silver ;  give  me,  my 
brother,  the  silver  of  the  gods,  and  I  will  send  thee  in  return  what- 
ever thou  desirest. 

" '  Another  thing :  give  me,  my  brother,  the  oxen  which  my 
messenger  will  ask  for,  and  the  precious  ointments  ;  send  me  two  jars 
of  .  .  .  ,  my  brother,  and  send  me  one  of  the  bird-breeders  (?). 

"  '  Another  thing  :  a  man  of  the  land  of  Alashiya  has  died  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,  and  his  goods  are  still  in  thy  country,  but  his  wife 
and  children  are  with  me.  My  brother,  give  the  goods  of  the 
natives  of  Alashiya  into  the  hand  of  my  messenger. 

''  'My  brother,  lay  it  not  to  heart  that  thy  messenger  has  dwelt 
for  three  years  in  my  land,  because  the  hand  of  Nergal  has  lain  upon 
my  land,  and  in  my  own  house  my  wife  brought  forth  a  son  who  is 
now  dead,  O  my  brother. 

"  '  Send  thy  messenger  in  company  with  my  messenger  under 
guard  every  month.  I  have  sent  a  gift  to  my  brother. 

" '  Another  thing  :   My  brother,  send  the  silver  which  T  ask  of 


206  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

thee  in  great  quantities,  and  send  the  goods  which  I  ask  of  thee ; 
and  I  have  performed  all  the  requests  of  my  brother,  and  I  will 
perform  all  the  requests  that  my  brother  shall  make  of  me. 

" '  Make  no  alliance  with  the  king  of  the  Hittites  or  with  the 
king  of  Shinar.  Whatever  gifts  they  have  sent  to  me,  I  return 
twofold  to  thee. 

"  '  Thy  messenger  came  to  me  by  name,  and  my  messenger  goes 
to  thee  by  name.' " 


CHAPTEB   VIII. 

THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS 

CANAAN    BEFORE    THE    EXODUS. 

WHEN  the  Egyptian  kings  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty 
invaded  the  country  which  lies  along  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  which  the  natives  called 
Canaan  and  the  Greeks  Phoenicia,  they  found  it  divided 
into  a  number  of  small  States,  each  governed  by  an  inde- 
pendent prince.  It  was  the  policy  of  the  Pharaohs  to 
leave  the  country  under  the  same  conditions  of  govern- 
ment, only  requiring  the  regular  payment  of  tribute, 
and  at  a  later  time  placing  native  Canaan ites  upon 
whom  they  could  rely  as  their  own  officers  in  the  cities, 
side  by  side  with  the  hereditary  prince.  This  is  the 
political  state  of  Canaan  shown  in  the  Tell  el-Amarna 
tablets,  only  we  here  see  the  Egyptian  supremacy  on 
the  decline.  The  native  princes  are  beginning  to  throw 
off  their  allegiance  to  the  Pharaoh.  The  officers  of  the 
king  of  Egypt  are  attacked  or  deserted ;  they  attempt 
to  maintain  his  authority  with  the  help  of  the  soldiers 
whom  he  sends  them ;  but  in  many  cases  they  are 
shut  up  and  besieged  in  certain  cities  until  they  are 
forced  to  yield. 

In  the   letters  from  the   Egyptian   officials    which 


208  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

reveal  to  us  this  state  of  affairs,  the  name  of  the  Pharaoh 
under  whose  reign  they  took  place  is  not  generally 
stated,  but  it  was,  without  doubt,  Amenophis  IV.,  whom 
Akizzi  addresses  by  name,  and  whose  power  is  known 
to  have  been  much  weakened  by  religious  dissensions ; 
moreover,  it  was  on  the  site  of  his  capital  that  all  this 
body  of  correspondence  was  found.  Nevertheless,  one 
of  the  letters  of  Burraburyash,  quoted  in  the  last  chapter, 
shows  us  that  the  Canaanites  had  already  meditated 
rebellion  in  the  time  of  Amenophis  III.,  and  had  actually 
asked  for  the  alliance  and  support  of  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon, who,  however,  had  loyally  refused  to  listen  to  the 
treacherous  proposal. 

The  name  of  Canaan  had  never  been  found  in  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  until  the  discovery  of  the  Tell 
el-Amarna  tablets.  It  occurs  here,  however,  in  the  two 
forms,  mat  Kindkld  and  mat  Kinakhna,  which  corre- 
spond to  the  native  forms  Kna  and  Kna  an,  or  Canaan. 
We  know,  of  course,  from  many  passages  in  the  Bible, 
that  the  sea-coast  from  Sidon  to  the  boundary  of  Egypt, 
including  a  strip  of  inland  territory,  was  known  as  the 
land  of  Canaan  before  the  invasion  of  Joshua.  We 
also  learn  from  Phoenician  inscriptions  and  from  ancient 
authors  that  the  natives  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  the  rest 
of  this  country  which  was  not  included  in  the  dominions 
of  Israel,  continued  to  name  their  territory  Kna  ,  or 
Canaan,  until  comparatively  late  times;  and  Saint 
Augustine  says  that  even  the  rustics  of  North  Africa,  in 
his  own  day,  who  represented  the  ancient  colony  from 
Tyre,  if  they  were  asked  of  what  nationality  they  were, 


THE    TELL    EL-AMAHNA    TABLETS.  209 

would  answer  "  Canaanites."  When  the  letters  found 
at  Tell  el-Amarna  were  written,  the  name  of  Canaan 
was  still  applied  to  the  whole  region,  including  that 
part  which  afterwards  formed  the  kingdoms  of  Israel 
and  Judah.  The  following  appears  to  be  a  letter  of 
commendation  which  the  servant  or  "  merchant  "  of  some 
Mesopotamian  prince  took  with  him  to  serve  as  a  pass- 
port on  his  way  through  Canaan  to  Egypt.  It  is 
addressed  to  any  of  the  native  princes  tributary  to  the 
Pharaoh  through  whose  petty  dominions  the  envoy 
might  have  to  journey  :— 

"To  the  kings  of  the  land  of  Canaan  (Kindkhna),  the  servants  of 
my  brother,  thus  says  the  king  .  .  .  :  '  Behold  I  send  Akiya,  my 
messenger,  to  the  king  of  Egypt,  my  brother.  .  .  .  Let  no  one 
hinder  him.  Send  him  on  safely  to  the  land  of  Egypt.  .  .  .  Let 
no  violence  be  done  to  him.' " 

Such  a  passport  was  necessary  to  ensure  the  protection 
of  the  envoys  and  merchants  of  various  kings,  who  were 
obliged  to  pass  through  Canaan  on  their  way  into 
Egypt.  The  dangers  which  were  incurred  during  these 
journeys  through  that  unsettled  and  turbulent  country 
are  illustrated  by  the  fate  which  befell  the  merchants  of 
King  Burraburyash  of  Babylon,  related  in  the  following- 
letter  from  that  monarch  to  Amenophis  IV. : — 

[After  salutations.] 

"  I  and  my  brother,  we  have  spoken  good  things  to  one  another. 
This  is  what  we  said  :  '  As  our  fathers  were  friendly  with  one 
another,  so  let  us  be  friendly.' 

"  Now,  my  merchants  who  were  conveying  their  wares  (?)  to  my 
brother  have  met  with  their  death.  When  they  were  carrying  mer- 
chandise for  my  brother,  and  had  come  to  the  city  of  Kninnatuni,  in 

O 


210  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

the  land  of  Canaan,  Shum-Adda,  the  son  of  Malumme,  and  Shutadna, 
the  son  of  Sharatum  of  the  city  of  Accho  [the  modern  Acre],  sent 
their  men  and  slew  my  merchants  and  seized  their  silver. 

"  The  land  of  Canaan  is  thy  land,  therefore  call  those  kings  to 
account  since  I  have  suffered  violence  in  their  land,  and  make  them 
restore  the  money  that  they  have  stolen,  and  slay  the  men  who  slew 
my  servants.  ...  If  thou  dost  not  slay  those  men  .  .  .  they 
will  slay  thy  messengers,  and  no  messenger  will  be  able  to  pass  (?) 
between  us.  .  .  .  Shum-Adda  cut  off  the  feet  of  my  servant  and 
struck  off  his  hands,  and  the  other,  Shutadna  of  Accho,  cut  off  (?)  his 
head.  .  .  ." 

The  investiture  of  such  petty  princes  as  those  of 
Canaan  by  the  Egyptian  kings  is  alluded  to  in  the 
following  passage : — 

"Manakhbiya  [Thothmes  IV.,  father  of  Amenophis  III.],  ap- 
pointed .  .  .  king  of  the  land  of  Nukhashi,  and  poured  oil  upon 
his  head." 

Besides  the  name  of  Canaan,  we  find  another  com- 
monly applied  to  the  country  in  the  Tell  el-Amarna 
tablets.  This  is  the  term  "  land  of  Amuri,"  or  land  of 
the  Amorites,  and  is  the  same  name  which  the  prophet 
Amos  uses  where  he  says  : — 

"  I  brought,  you  up  from  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  led  you  forty 
years  through  the  wilderness  to  possess  the  land  of  the  Amorite." 

This  name  appears  in  Egyptian  as  the  land  of  Amaure. 
It  is  the  designation  generally  given  in  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions,  both  those  of  earlier  and  those  of  later  date 
than  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets,  to  the  land  lying  along 
the  eastern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  by  a  trans- 
ference of  meaning  signifies  the  west  generally ;  the 
west  wind  is  called  the  wind  of  Amwru. 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  211 

Among  the  cities  of  Canaan  mentioned  in  the  Tell 
el-Amarna  tablets  we  find  :  Tyre,  Sidon,  Beyrout,  Byblus, 
or  Gebal,  Acre,  Aradus,  or  Arvad,  Gaza,  Joppa,  Simyra, 
or  Zemar,  Gezer,  Jerusalem,  and  many  others  ;  Damascus 
also  appears. 

The  officer  of  the  Egyptian  government  in  Tyre 
writes  to  the  Pharaoh  in  sore  distress ;  he  is  attacked 
by  the  enemies  of  the  Egyptian  power  on  all  sides,  and 
unless  the  king  sends  him  men  and  supplies  he  will  not 
be  able  to  hold  out.  The  officer  is  a  native  Canaanite, 
and  his  name  is  Abi-milki,  or  Abimelech,  and  means 
"  the  king  is  my  father."  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  name  of  the  "  cunning  workman  "  sent  to  Solomon 
by  King  Hiram  of  Tyre  was  named  Hiram-abi,  or 
"  Hiram  is  my  father."  We  learn  from  the  letters  of 
Abi-milki  that  Tyre  was  already  a  city  upon  an  island, 
and  we  hear  no  mention  of  the  other  Tyre  upon  the 
mainland,  which  the  Greeks  called  Palaetyrus,  and 
which  was  believed  to  be  the  more  ancient  part  of  the 
city.  The  great  merchant  city  of  Phoenicia  was  already, 
in  the  time  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  of  Egypt,  seated 
in  "the  midst  of  the  seas,"*  and  "inhabited  by  seafaring 
men."  In  consequence  of  her  position,  she  suffered 
severely  in  time  of  war  from  the  want  of  water  and 
other  supplies,  which  were  habitually  brought  over  from 
the  mainland  in  boats.  This  operation  is  actually  men- 
tioned in  an  Egyptian  papyrus,  which  contains  notes  of 
the  travels  of  an  officer  of  the  Pharaoh  through  part  of 

*  Ezekiel  xxvi.  17;  xxvii.  4;  xxviii.  2 

o  2 


212  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Syria,  not  more  than  a  century,  perhaps,  later  than  the 
letters  of  Abi-milki : — 

"  They  [i.e.,  such  and  such  places]  are  near  another  city  in.  the 
sea,  the  name  of  which  is  Tyre,  the  port.  Water  is  brought  to  it  in 
boats ;  it  is  richer  in  fish  than  in  sand." 

That  part  of  Tyre  which  lay  on  the  mainland  was 
richly  provided  with  water  from  wells  and  aqueducts ; 
the  supply  from  the  latter  was  cut  oft'  by  the  king-  of 
Assyria,  who  besieged  the  place  in  the  eighth  century 
before  Christ.  The  reason  for  which  the  city  on  the 
island  was  founded  was  that  there  were  here  two  good 
harbours,  whereas  Palaetyrus  had  no  harbour,  although 
well  situated  in  other  respects.  For  the  convenience  of 
navigation  and  trade,  therefore,  the  two  bare  rocks 
which  lay  at  a  short  distance  from  the  shore  were 
covered  with  soil,  and  buildings  were  erected  upon  them  ; 
and  it  was  from  these  rocks  that  the  name  Tyre,  or 
the  Eock,  was  derived.  Of  the  two  harbours,  one  was 
called  the  Sidonian,  because  it  looked  north ;  and  the 
other  the  Egyptian,  because  it  received  the  trading 
vessels  from  the  mouth  of  the  Nile.  As  for  the  date  of 
the  foundation  of  Tyre,  it  must  remain  uncertain  for 
the  present.  Herodotus,  however,  was  informed  by  the 
Tyrian  priests  that  their  city  was  first  built  two  thousand 
three  hundred  years  before  the  date  of  his  visit :  that  is 
to  say,  about  B.C.  2750.  The  city  was  ancient  in  the 
time  of  Abi-milki.  We  do  not  hear  anything  in  the 
Tell  el-Amarna  tablets  about  the  trade  of  Tyre ;  we  do 
not  know  how  far  she  already  anticipated  the  picture 
drawn  by  the  prophet  Ezekiel  of  her  varied  commerce. 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  213 

But  as  we  hear  of  her  ships,  which  she  was  the  first  to 
build  for  the  purposes  of  her  trade,  we  may  conclude 
that  the  merchants  of  Tyre  were  already  known  in  many 
ports  of  the  Mediterranean,  where  they  exchanged  the 
wares  of  Egypt  and  Assyria,  as  well  as  those  of  their 
own  country,  for  the  rough  produce  of  less  civilized 
nations. 

The  appearance  of  the  island  city  excited  the  admi- 
ration of  many  lovers  of  the  picturesque  in  later  and 
more  cultivated  days  : — 

"  Never  have  I  seen  so  much  beauty  ;  for  the  lofty  trees  murmur 
beside  the  waves,  and  the  forest  nymph  bends  down  to  listen  to  the 
song  of  the  sea  nymph,  floating  at  her  feet ;  while  the  soft  mid-day 
breeze  blows  from  Lebanon  on  the  Tyrian  waters,  and  on  the  sea-girt 
fields,  and  with  the  same  breath  ripens  the  fruits,  and  drives  the 
ships  across  the  waves,  at  once  cooling  the  labourer's  brow,  and  tilling 
the  sails  of  the  mariner. 

"  O,  city,  famous  throughout  the  world,  the  type  of  earth,  the 
image  of  heaven,  thou  bearest  the  triangular  sword-belt  of  thy  fellow 
the  sea. 

"Greatly  Dionysus  rejoiced  when  he  saw  the  city  which  the 
ocean-god  has  bound  with  the  liquid  girdle  of  the  waves.  In  shape 
she  was  like  the  crescent  moon.  As  he  looked  it  seemed  a  double 
wonder,  since  Tyre  lies  in  the  sea  and  is  bound  by  the  waves,  and 
yet  belongs  to  the  land.  She  seemed  like  a  maiden  floating  motionless, 
half  submerged  in  the  waters."  * 

After  the  siege  of  Alexander  the  Great,  Tyre  ceased 
to  be  an  island,  for  the  great  causeway  which  he  con- 
structed united  her  with  the  coast.  The  city  now 
resembled  a  ship  which  was  moored  near  to  the  shore, 
and  had  put  out  a  gangway  for  the  landing  of  the 

*  Nonnus,  Dionysiaca,  xl.  311  ft 


214  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

passengers.*  She  afforded  a  new  spectacle  :  that  of  a 
city  in  the  midst  of  the  sea  and  at  the  same  time  of 
an  island  on  shore. f  Let  us  see  in  what  terms  Abi- 
milki  wrote  to  the  Egyptian  king  for  help,  when  the 
enemies  of  the  Pharaoh  shut  him  up  on  the  rock  of 
Tyre  :— 

[After  salutations.] 

"  I  am  guarding  the  city  of  the  king,  which  he  entrusted  to  my 
charge,  with  all  my  might.  My  desire  is  to  go  and  see  the  face  of 
the  king,  my  lord,  but  I  cannot  escape  from  the  hand  of  Zimrida,  the 
Sidonian.  The  king  has  heard  that  he  has  become  great,  and  has 
made  war  upon  me.  Let  the  king  give  me  men  to  defend  the  city 
of  the  king,  my  lord.  Let  me  enter  into  the  presence  of  the  king,  my 
lord,  to  see  his  face  and  obtain  his  favour.  .  .  .  Let  the  king 
ask  the  officer  of  his  Gate  whether  I  do  not  serve  the  king,  my  lord. 

"  We  have  no  water  and  we  have  no  wood.  Behold  I  send  Ilu- 
milki,  my  messenger,  into  the  presence  of  the  king,  my  lord,  and  I 
have  given  him  five  talents  of  copper. 

"  The  king  sent  to  me,  saying  :  '  Send  word  to  me  of  what  thou 
nearest  from  the  land  of  Canaan.'  (I  say  therefore  that)  the  king  of 
the  land  of  Dananu  is  dead,  and  his  brother  is  become  king  after 
him,  and  his  land  is  at  peace.  Let  the  king  know  that  half  of  the 
city  of  Elgarit  is  burnt  with  fire.  .  .  .  There  are  no  soldiers  from 
the  land  of  the  Hittites.  Etagamapairi  of  Kadesh,  and  Aziru  have 
made  war  upon  Namyawiza.  .  .  .  Zimrida  has  collected  ships 
and  men  from  the  cities." 

The   following    letter    depicts   the    same    state    of 
distress : — 

[After  salutations.] 

"  The  king  said  to  his  servant :  '  [Command]  Shalmayati,  my 
servant,  to  give  water  that  you  may  drink.'  But  they  did  not  do  as 
the  king  commanded ;  they  did  not  give  it. 

*  Charitoii,  vii.  f  Achilles  Tatius,  ij, 


THE    TELL   EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  215 

"  Let  the  king  counsel  his  servant  Shalruayati  to  give  water,  that 
he  may  save  his  own  life. 

"Another  thing:  O,  my  lord  the  king,  we  have  no  wood;  we 
have  no  water.  .  . 

"Let  the  king  command  his  servant,  and  the  city  of  Tyre,  the 
city  of  Shalmayati;  and  whatever  comes  forth  from  the  mouth  of  the 
king  to  his  servant,  I  will  perform." 

It  thus  appears  that  Abi-Milki  soon  had  cause  to 
regret  his  appointment  as  the  representative  of  the  king 
of  Egypt,  over  which  he  showed  so  much  joy  at  the 
beginning.  It  is  curious  to  compare  with  the  letters 
that  have  just  been  quoted  one  which  he  wrote  when 
he  was  first  placed  as  "  Egyptian  Resident  "  in  Tyre : — • 

[After  salutations.] 

"  Thus  says  the  servant  to  his  lord  :  '  Behold,  I  have  heard  the 
messenger  who  brought  the  gracious  message  of  the  king,  and  who 
came  to  his  servant,  and  the  favourable  words  which  came  out  of 
the  mouth  of  the  king,  my  lord,  to  his  servant  when  he  spoke  his 
words.  If  the  messenger  of  the  king,  my  lord,  had  not  come  he  would 
not  have  spoken  the  words ;  the  mouth  of  my  enemies  would  have 
spoken.  See,  now,  behold  the  words  of  the  king  have  come  forth 
upon  me.  Then  I  rejoiced  greatly. 

"  '  Behold  I  have  heard  the  favourable  messenger  who  came  from 
my  lord,  and  all  the  world  fears  before  the  face  of  my  lord.  Behold, 
I  have  heard  the  gracious  words  and  the  favourable  messenger  who 
came  to  me.'  Behold,  the  king,  my  lord,  said  :  '  Stand  before  the  face 
of  the  great  men ' ;  and  the  servant  said  to  his  lord  :  '  Yea,  yea.' 

"  If  a  man  does  not  obey  the  words  of  the  king  his  lord,  his  city 
perishes  ;  his  house  perishes ;  his  name  is  lost  for  ever  in  his  country. 
But  if  the  servant  obeys  the  voice  of  his  lord,  hi§  city  remains ;  his 
house  continues,  and  his  name  lasts  for  ever,'' 


216  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Another  Canaanite  officer  of  the  Egyptian  king,  who 
is  represented  by  a  large  number  of  letters  among  the 
Tell  el-Amarna  tablets,  was  Rip- Adda  of  Byblus.  This 
faithful  servant  of  the  Pharaoh  was  attacked  and  be- 
sieged by  his  enemies,  who  shut  him  up  in  his  city  like 
"  a  bird  in  a  trap."  The  leaders  of  the  faction  opposed 
to  Kip- Adda  were  a  certain  Abd-Ashirta  and  his  son 
Aziru.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  Abd-Ashirta  himself  sent 
letters  to  the  king  of  Egypt,  professing  loyalty  to  the 
Egyptian  supremacy  :— 

"To  the  king,  my  lord,  thus  says  Abd-Ashirta,  the  servant  of  the 
king  :  'At  the  feet  of  the  king,  my  lord,  I  bow  seven  times.' 

"  Let  the  king  learn  that  the  hostility  against  me  is  strong.  May 
I  receive  favour  in  the  sight  of  the  king,  and  may  he  send  a  great 
man  to  defend  me. 

"Another  thing  :  The  king  sent  a  message  to  his  servant,  and  I 
have  obeyed  all  the  words  of  the  king. 

"  Behold,  I  have  sent  ten  female  slaves." 

Byblus  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  of  the  primeval 
cities  on  the  Phoenician  coast ;  some,  indeed,  said  that 
she  was  the  most  ancient  of  all.  She  possessed  a  famous 
image  of  the  goddess  Beltis,  whose  blessing  Rip-Adda 
in  all  his  letters  invokes  upon  the  head  of  the  Pharaoh. 
The  goddess  is  also  mentioned  in  a  Phoenician  inscrip- 
tion upon  a  stela  of  the  sixth  or  fifth  century  before 
Christ,  which  runs  as  follows  : — 

"  I  am  Jehavmelech,  king  of  Byblus,  son  of  Jaharbaal,  grandson 
of  Adonimelech,  king  of  Byblus,  whom  my  Lady  the  goddess  Beltis 
of  Byblus  set  as  king  over  Byblus.  I  invoke  my  Lady,  Beltis  of 
Byblus,  because  [she  hears  my  voice],  I  have  made  for  my  Lady, 


THE    TELL    EL-AMAIiNA    TABLETS.  217 

Beltis  of  Byblus,  this  brazen  altar,  in  this  [temple],  and  this  golden 
ornament  and  the  golden  [uraeus  in  the  middle  of  the  stone]  over 
this  golden  ornament ;  and  this  porch,  and  its  columns,  and  their 
capitals,  and  the  roof,  I,  Jehavmelech,  king  of  Byblus,  have  made 
for  my  Lady,  Beltis  of  Byblus,  because  whenever  I  have  invoked  my 
Lady,  Beltis  of  Byblus,  she  has  heard  my  voice  and  conferred  favours 
upon  me.  May  Beltis  of  Byblus  bless  Jehavmelech,  king  of  Byblus, 
and  give  him  life,  and  lengthen  his  days  and  his  years  in  Byblus, 
because  lie  is  a  righteous  king ;  and  may  Beltis  of  Byblus  give  him 
grace  before  the  gods  and  before  the  people  of  this  land,  and  the 
favour  of  the  people  of  strange  lands  for  ever.  Every  prince  and 
every  man  who  shall  change  this  altar,  or  this  golden  ornament,  or 
this  porch,  I,  Jehavmelech,  set  my  face  against  him.  .  .  .  May 
the  goddess  Beltis  of  Byblus  destroy  that  man  and  his  seed." 

The  upper  part  of  the  stela  which  exhibits  this  in- 
scription is  occupied  by  a  bas-relief,  showing  the  king, 
Jehavmelech  himself,  in  a  costume  apparently  borrowed 
from  the  Persian  fashion  of  his  day,  as  he  offers  prayers 
to  the  goddess.  The  latter  appears  in  the  form  of  the 
Egyptian  Hathor,  with  the  horns  of  the  heifer  and  the 
disk  of  the  moon  between  them.  The  intercourse 
between  Egypt  and  Phoanicia  had  in  fact  in  this  case, 
as  in  others,  led  to  an  assimilation  of  certain  deities  and 
worships  proper  to  the  two  nations.  We  have  seen  in 
the  last  chapter  that  the  worship  of  Ishtar,  or  Ashtoreth, 
was  introduced  from  Mesopotamia  into  Egypt  during 
the  rule  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  and  that  the  Pharian 
Isis  was  identical  with  the  Semitic  goddess.  On  this 
stela  we  see  that  Beltis,  another  Semitic  goddess,  was 
also  identified  by  the  Egyptians  with  Hathor,  or  Isis. 
Although  the  inscription  of  Byblus  is  later,  the  union 
of  the  two  worships  may  be  supposed  to  have  taken 


218 


NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


place  in  the  days  of 
Egyptian  supremacy  over 
Western  Asia,  when,  as 
we  find  in  the  Tell  el- 
A  marna  tablets,  the  native 
governor  of  Byblus  under 
the  Egyptian  suzerain  in- 
voked the  blessing  of 
Beltis  upon  the  head  of 
the  Pharaoh.  The  Temple 
of  Beltis,  represented  on 
coins  of  the  Emperor  Ma- 
crintis,  contained  an  Egyp- 
tian obelisk  in  the  court- 
yard. 

Be  searches  upon  the 
site  of  Byblus  have  brought 
to  light  other  traces  of 
the  Egyptian  influences 
which  we  know  to  have 
reigned  there.  Among 
these  the  frieze  is  conspi- 
cuous which  shows  the 
Egyptian  winged  disk 
carved  in  low  relief. 

The  following  extracts 
from  Rip-Adda's  letters 
will  show  in  what  condi- 
tion the  Egyptian  au- 
thorities were  placed  at 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  219 

this    period   of    general     disorganisation    in    Western 
Asia: — 

[After  salutations.] 

"  Let  the  king,  my  lord,  know  that  the  city  of  Byblus,  the  faithful 
handmaid  of  the  king  since  the  days  of  his  fathers,  is  betrayed. 
Now  let  the  king  deliver  his  faithful  city  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
enemy.  Let  the  king,  my  lord,  behold  the  countries  which  were  the 
house  of  his  father,  that  there  is  no  faithful  servant  left  in  the  city 
of  Byblus.  They  do  not  obey  thy  servant,  for  the  war  carried  on  by 
the  Marauders  is  cruel. 

"  The  cities  on  the  mountains  have  joined  the  enemy,  and  become 
part  of  the  Marauders.  Only  two  cities  are  left  to  me.  Behold, 
now,  Abd-Ashirta  has  taken  the  city  of  Shigata  to  himself,  and  he 
sai  I  to  the  men  of  the  city  of  Ammiya :  '  Kill  your  chief,  and  you 
will  become  like  us,  and  you  will  be  prosperous.'  So  they  did 
according  to  his  words,  and  they  became  like  the  Marauders. 

"  Now,  Abd-Ashirta  sent  to  the  men  in  Bit-Ninip  (?)  saying : 
'  Collect  yourselves  together,  and  we  will  attack  the  city  of  Byblus, 
for  the  inhabitants  will  not  save  it  out  of  our  hands,  and  we  will 
appoint  governors  out  of  the  country,  and  all  the  lands  will  join  the 
Marauders  .  .  .  and  our  sons  and  our  daughters  will  be  at  peace 
for  ever.'  . 

"  The  whole  country  is  rebelling  against  the  king,  and  what  will 
become  of  us '?  I  fear  greatly  that  there  is  no  one  who  can  deliver 
me  out  of  their  hand.  I  am  like  a  bird  caught  in  a  trap. 

"  Behold  thus  I  send  word  to  the  Great  House  [i.e.,  Pharaoh], 
and  wilt  thou  not  listen  to  my  words  ?  Behold,  Amanappa  is  with 
thee ;  ask  of  him,  for  he  knows  and  has  seen  the  evil  that  has  befallen 
me.  Let  the  king  listen  to  the  words  of  his  servant  and  grant  the 
life  of  his  servant,  and  let  him  live." 

Those  who  were  at  this  period  rebelling  against  the 
Egyptian  supremacy,  and  attacking  the  servants  of  the 
Pharaoh,  are  often  named  the  "Robbers,"  or  "Brigands," 


220  KEW   LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

or  "Marauders."  This  term  cannot  fail  to  remind  us 
of  the  ancient  Phoenician  inscription  at  Tangier,  quoted 
by  Procopius,  which  stated  that  those  who  set  it  up  had 
been  driven  out  of  Canaan  by  the  "  Bobber  "  Joshua, 
the  son  of  Nun.  The  term  expresses  the  view  which 
the  inhabitants  of  a  country  naturally  take  of  an  army 
of  invaders.  The  letter  of  Rip- Adda,  given  above, 
shows  the  manner  in  which  these  "  Marauders "  are 
spoken  of ;  the  following  passages  will  illustrate  it 
further. 

The  governor  of  Gezer  writes  : — 

"  Let  the  king  save  us  out  of  the  hand  of  the  '  Marauders,'  that 
the  Marauders  may  not  destroy  us." 

Dagan-takala  appeals  to  the  Pharaoh : — 

"  Deliver  me  from  my  powerful  enemies,  from  the  hand  of  the 
Marauders." 

Another  writer  states  : — 

"  The  king's  country  is  in  the  power  of  the  Marauders.  Let  the 
king  give  instructions  to  his  officer  and  send  him  to  the  king's 
country,  and  let  the  king  despatch  his  troops  to  help  me." 

The  only  hope  for  protection  which  those  who 
remained  true  to  the  authority  of  Amenophis  could 
cling  to  lay  in  the  arrival  of  the  Egyptian  troops. 
Accordingly,  they  send  the  most  pressing  appeals  to 
Egypt  that  the  soldiers  may  be  sent.  Bip-Adda  of 
Byblus,  for  instance,  whose  letters  have  already  been 
quoted,  writes : — 

"Let  the  king  send  his  troops  to  the  city  of  Byblus." 


THE    TELL   EL-AMABNA    TABLETS.  221 

Milkili,  also  governor  of  a  town  tributary  to  Egypt, 
writes : — 

"  Let  the  king  send  troops  to  his  servants." 

Shuardata  writes : — 

"  Let  the  king  learn  that  I  am  alone  ;  let  the  king,  my  lord,  send 
many  troops  to  deliver  me." 

It  was  the  business  of  those  who  held  offices  under 
the  Egyptian  king  to  provide  the  army  of  the  Pharaoh 
with  food,  drink,  lodging,  and  all  the  necessaries  of  life. 
Thus  we  find  statements  like  the  following,  which  is 
made  by  Widya,  governor  of  Ascalon : — 

"  Behold,  I  have  obeyed  the  words  of  the  king,  my  lord,  the  son 
of  the  sun-god,  and  behold  I  have  sent  meat,  palm-wine,  corn,  oxen 
before  the  face  of  the  troops  of  the  king,  my  lord.  .  .  .  What 
is  thy  servant,  a  dog,  that  he  should  not  listen  to  the  words  of  the 
king,  the  son  of  the  sun-god  ?  " 

And  again  : — 

"  Behold,  I  have  sent  everything  .  .  .  palm-wine,  oxen  .  .  . 
straw,  everything  that  the  king,  my  lord,  said  to  me." 

Akizzi,  an  officer  of  the  king  of  Egypt  at  Katna, 
writes  to  Amenophis  IV. : — 

"  My  lord,  behold  the  troops  and  chariots  of  my  lord  the  king. 
.  .  .  I  have  prepared  meat,  and  palm-wine,  and  oxen  .  .  . 
and  honey,  and  oil  before  the  face  of  the  troops  and  the  chariots  of 
my  lord.  Behold  the  great  men  of  my  lord ;  let  my  lord  ask  them." 

The  officials  of  Canaan  were  also  expected  to  supply 
contingents  of  their  own  to  the  royal  forces.  This  they 
assure  the  Pharaoh,  in  their  despatches,  that  they  have 
done.  For  instance  : — 


222  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"Thou  didst  send  word  to  me  that  I  should  send  men  to  join  the 
troops  [from  Egypt].  Behold,  I  have  sent  all  my  men  and  my 
chariots  to  join  the  troops  of  the  king,  my  lord." 

A  similar  passage  occurs  in  a  letter  to  the  Pharaoh 
from  Ammunira  of  Beyrout,  which  has  already  been 
quoted. 

Among  the  other  despatches  from  officials  in  Canaan 
is  one  from  Zimrida  of  Lachish.  This  has  a  special 
interest  on  account  of  the  important  excavations  which 
Mr.  Petrie  has  lately  been  undertaking  at  Tell  Hesy, 
on  the  site  of  this  ancient  and  famous  city.  Moreover, 
not  only  has  Mr.  Petrie  discovered  many  important 
traces  of  Lachish  and  of  the  different  populations  that 
successively  occupied  it,  but  a  tablet  inscribed  with 
cuneiform  characters  has  recently  been  disinterred  there, 
together  with  Egyptian  scarabs  and  beads  of  the  same 
period  as  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets,  and  this  text 
actually  contains  the  name  of  Zimrida.  We  must  all 
look  forward  with  interest  to  the  forthcoming  trans- 
lation of  this  document  by  Professor  Sayce.  The  letter 
of  Zimrida  found  at  Tell  el-Amarna  runs  as  follows :  — 

[After  salutations.] 

"  The  messenger  of  the  king,  my  lord,  whom  he  sent  to  me.  I 
have  obeyed  his  words  with  all  my  heart.  Behold,  I  have  sent  the 
troops  as  he  commanded  me." 

The  cities  of  Gaza  and  Joppa,  in  South  Palestine,  are 
mentioned  in  the  following  epistle,  in  which  Yabitiri 
professes  his  loyalty  to  the  king  of  Egypt,  and  asks 
for  his  favour  : — 

[After  salutations. J 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  ii23 

"  See,  I  am  a  faithful  servant  of  the  king,  my  lord.  I  look  this 
way  and  I  look  that  way,  and  there  is  no  light ;  but  when  I  look 
towards  the  king,  my  lord,  there  is  light.  A  tile  may  give  way 
beneath  its  .  .  .  but  I  shall  never  give  way  beneath  the  feet  of 
the  king,  my  lord.  Let  the  king,  my  lord,  enquire  of  Yaukhamu,  his 
Officer  of  the  Gate,  whether  I  am  a  child.  Bring  me  into  the  land 
of  Egypt,  and  I  will  go  down  to  the  king,  my  lord,  and  stand  in  the 
gate  of  the  king,  my  lord.  Let  the  king  enquire  of  his  Officer  of  the 
Gate  whether  I  defended  the  gate  of  the  city  of  Gaza  and  the  gate 
of  the  city  of  Joppa.  I  have  been  with  the  troops  of  the  king,  my 
lord ;  wherever  they  have  been,  I  have  been  with  them.  Behold,  I 
am  with  them  now.  The  yoke  of  the  king,  my  lord,  is  upon  my  neck, 
and  I  will  bear  it." 

The  most  powerful  enemies  of  the  Egyptian  power 
in  Western  Asia  were  the  Hittites,  the  rightful  owners 
since  the  time  of  Abraham*  of  the  inland  territories  of 
Canaan,  which  formed  indeed  part  of  "  the  land  of  the 
Hittites. "f  It  was  with  the  Hittite  king  that  traitors 
to  the  Pharaoh  like  Abd-Ashirta  were  conspiring,  all 
the  time  that  they  were  protesting  their  own  loyalty ; 
this  we  see  from  the  following  passages. 

Aziru,  son  of  Abd-Ashirta,  alludes  to  the  charge  of 
treachery  made  against  him  in  these  words  : — 

"  Another  thing  :  The  king,  my  lord,  also  said  to  me  :  '  Why  hast 
thou  given  answers  to  the  messenger  of  the  king  of  the  Hittites,  and 
hast  given  no  answers  to  my  messenger  ? '  Yet  this  is  a  country  sub- 
ject to  my  lord,  and  the  king  placed  me  here  among  the  governors. 

"  Let  the  king's  messenger  go,  and  repeat  all  that  I  have  said 
before  the  king,  and  let  the  king  hear  my  words." 

The  real  character  of  Aziru  aad  his  father,  Abd- 
Ashirta,  is  stated  by  Rip-Adda  of  Byblus,  who  says  : — 

*  Genesis  xiii.  3  ££.  f  Joshua  i.  4 


224  A#JF   LIGHT    ON   THE   BI&Lfi. 

"  Al>d-Ashirta  is  a  servant  of  the  king  of  Mitani,  and  of  the  king 
of  Kashi,  and  of  the  king  of  the  Hittites ;  he  seeks  to  seize  all  the 
cities  of  the  king,  the  sun-god." 

In  the  last  chapter  we  saw  that  Tushratta  announced 
to  Amenophis  III.  a  victory  which  he  had  gained  over 
the  Hittites  as  a  piece  of  good  news  which  would 
rejoice  the  heart  of  the  king  of  Egypt.  But  in  the 
reign  of  Amenophis  IV.  the  dreaded  enemy  had  begun 
to  encroach  on  the  territories  that  paid  tribute  to  the 
Pharaoh,  and  from  this  time  onward,  until  their  crushing 
defeat  at  the  hands  of  Rameses  II.,  the  Hittites  seem 
to  have  steadily  progressed  in  power.  Several  of  their 
depredations  are  mentioned  in  the  Tell  el-Amarna 
tablets.  They  ravaged  the  city  of  Katna,  in  company 
with  the  rebel  Aziru,  as  we  learn  from  the  following 
passages  in  a  letter  from  Akizzi  to  Amenophis  IV. : — 

"  Let  the  king,  my  lord,  know  .  .  .  that  now  the  king  of  the 
land  of  the  Hittites  has  burnt  [our  cities]  with  fire,  and  carried  off 
their  gods  and  their  inhabitants. 

"  Aziru  has  seized  the  men  of  Katna,  my  servants,  and  [carried 
them  away]  from  the  country  of  my  lord." 

The  invasion  of  territories  tributary  to  Egypt  by 
the  Hittites  is  also  thus  alluded  to : — 

"The  king  of  the  land  of  the  Hittites  has  taken  up  his  quarters 
in  the  land  of  Nukhashi,  and  I  fear  because  of  him,  that  he  will  go 
up  into  the  land  of  the  Amorites." 

To  many  readers,  perhaps  the  most  interesting  of 
the  Tell  el-Amarna  letters  will  be  those  written  from 
Jerusalem,  which,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  Canaan,  was  at 


THE    TELL   EL-AMAItNA    TABLETS.  225 

the  time  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  tributary  to  the 
king  of  Egypt.  The  city  is  already  called  Uruvalim, 
Jerusalem,  not  Jebus.  In  the  reign  of  Amenophis  IV. 
the  Egyptian  supremacy  was  on  the  wane  here,  as  in 
other  parts  of  the  country,  and  the  district  was  attacked 
by  the  league  of  princes  adverse  to  the  claims  of  the 
Pharaoh,  who  were  doing  their  best  to  overthrow  his 
power.  In  speaking  of  these  "  leaguers,"  or  "  allies," 
we  must  not  omit  to  notice  a  different  view  which  has 
been  taken  of  the  meaning  of  this  word.  It  is  written 
in  these  texts  in  the  form  Khabiri,  and  might  on  philo- 
logical grounds  be  conceived  to  be  identical  with  the 
word  Hebrew ;  on  this  account  it  has  been  suggested 
that  we  have  here  an  actual  allusion  to  the  invasion 
of  the  Hebrews*  and  their  attack  upon  Jerusalem. 
This  opinion,  if  it  were  correct,  would  alter  the  view 
now  generally  taken  of  the  date  of  the  exodus,  which 
is  indeed  uncertain ;  but  the  matter  is  simply  mentioned 
here  as  a  suggestion  which  has  been  made. 

On  account  of  the  interest  naturally  felt  in  the 
earliest  written  documents  proceeding  from  Jerusalem, 
a  translation  of  one  or  two  of  the  letters  of  Abdi-khiba, 
the  representative  of  the  Pharaoh  in  that  city,  is 
subjoined: — 

[After  salutations.] 

"What  have  I  done  against  the  king,  my  lord?  I  am  slandered 
before  the  king,  thus  :  '  Abdi-khiba  is  rebellious  against  the  king,  his 
lord.'  See,  as  for  myself,  it  was  not  my  father  or  my  mother  who 

*  See  Zimmern  in  Zeitschrift  des  Deutschen  Palastina-Vereins,  Bd.  xiii^ 
p.  133  ff. 

P 


226  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

set  me  in  this  place,  but  it  was  the  arm  of  the  mighty  king  that 
brought  me  into  my  father's  house.  Why,  then,  should  I  sin  against 
the  king?  As  long  as  the  king,  my  lord,  lives,  I  say  thus  to  the 
messengers  of  the  king,  my  lord  :  '  Why  do  you  favour  the  Leaguers 
(Khabiri),  and  show  hostility  towards  the  governors  [of  the  king  of 
Egypt]?' 

"  All  the  governors  are  slain ;  there  is  no  governor  of  the  king 
left.  Let  the  king  turn  his  face  towards  his  people,  and  send  troops. 
There  are  no  longer  any  lands  of  the  king  left.  The  Leaguers 
(Khabiri)  have  plundered  all  the  lands  of  the  king.  If  the  troops 
come  this  year,  the  lands  of  the  king  may  yet  be  saved;  but  if  they 
do  not  come,  the  lands  of  the  king  will  be  lost." 

In  another  letter  Abdi-kbiba  says  : — 

"  Let  the  king  send  troops  against  the  men  who  have  committed 
sins  against  the  king,  my  lord.  If  the  troops  come  this  year,  the 
lands  and  the  governors  may  be  preserved  for  the  king,  my  lord ; 
but  if  they  do  not  come,  there  will  be  no  lands  of  the  king  left.  See, 
as  for  this  city  of  Jerusalem  ;  it  was  not  my  father  or  my  mother 
who  gave  it  to  me  ;  the  arm  of  the  king  gave  it  to  me.  This  is  the 
deed  of  Milkili,  and  the  deed  of  the  son  of  Lapapi,  who  have  given 
up  the  king's  land  to  the  Leaguers  [Khabiri]." 

"  See,  the  king  has  placed  his  name  upon  Jerusalem  for  ever , 
therefore  he  cannot  abandon  the  city  of  Jerusalem." 

In  another  letter  Abdi-khiba  writes : — 

"  Behold  the  deeds  that  Milkili  and  Shuardatum  have  done 
against  the  land  of  the  king,  my  lord.  They  have  brought  the  troops 
of  Gezer,  the  troops  of  Gath,  and  the  troops  of  Kegila,  and  have 
seized  the  territory  of  the  city  of  Rubute.  The  land  of  the  king  has 
gone  over  to  the  Leaguers  [Khabiri].  Now,  moreover,  a  city  of  the 
territory  of  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  Bit-Ninip,  a  city  of  the  king,  has 
gone  over,  like  the  city  of  Kegila.  Therefore  let  the  king  listen  to 
his  servant  Abdi-khiba,  and  send  troops,  that  I  may  win  back  the 


THE    TELL    EL-AMARNA    TABLETS.  227 

land  of  the  king  for  the  king.     But  if  no  troops  come,  then  the  land 
of  the  king  will  go  over  to  the  Leaguers  \Khabiri\" 

On  the  other  hand,  Abdi-khiba's  enemy,  Milkili, 
whom  he  represents  as  a  traitor  to  Egypt,  wrote  him- 
self to  the  Pharaoh,  as  a  faithful  servant  of  the 
latter : — 

"  I  have  heard  the  message  of  the  king,  my  lord,  to  me,  and  let 
the  king  send  troops  to  the  aid  of  his  servants  .  .  ." 

In  another  letter  Milkili  speaks  of  an  outrage  com- 
mitted upon  him  by  an  Egyptian  official,  and  demands 
that  the  king  should  assist  him  to  take  revenge  upon 
the  aggressor : — 

"  Let  the  king  know  the  deed  that  Yankhamu  has  done  since  I 
left  the  presence  of  the  king,  my  lord. 

"  He  said  to  me  :  '  Give  up  to  me  thy  wife  and  thy  children.' 
Let  me  destroy  him  (?) ;  let  the  king  know  this  deed.  Let  the  king 
send  chariots,  and  bring  me  into  his  presence  ;  let  him  not  escape  (1)." 

Possibly,  if  the  conjecture  may  be  allowed,  this  out- 
rage on  the  part  of  a  high  Egyptian  official  drove 
Milkili  into  rebellion. 

The  city  of  Beyrout  is  alluded  to  as  a  seaport,  which 
possessed  ships ;  and  the  ships  of  Sidon  and  Zemar  are 
also  mentioned.  Damascus  appears  as  a  city  loyal  to 
the  king  of  Egypt,  and  distressed  at  the  victory  of  his 
enemies. 

"  My  lord,  as  the  city  of  Damascus  in  the  land  of  Ubi  [i.e., 
Hobah]  falls  at  thy  feet  and  grasps  them  with  her  hands,  so  the  city 
of  Katna  falls  at  thy  feet  and  grasps  them  with  her  hands." 


228  NEW  LIGHT    ON   THE    HlBLE. 

We  may  now  recapitulate  some  of  the  results  which 
have  been  obtained  from  a  study  of  the  letters  from 
Canaan,  with  the  full  conviction  that  further  researches 
will  bring  to  light  much  more  that  is  still  to  be  learnt 
from  these  documents  of  clay.  We  see,  then,  a  great 
part,  if  not  the  whole,  of  Canaan  and  Syria  between  B.C. 
1500  and  B.C.  1400  in  a  disorganised  condition.  The 
native  princes,  driven  to  despair  by  the  apathy  and 
inaction  of  their  Egyptian  suzerain,  are  allying  them- 
selves with  the  kings  of  the  Hittites,  and  seizing  the 
towns  and  ships  of  the  Pharaoh.  The  representatives 
of  the  king  of  Egypt  are  driven  away,  or  blockaded 
and  reduced  to  the  greatest  straits  in  the  cities  that 
still  remain  faithful,  while  their  appeals  to  Egypt  for 
help  too  often  remain  unanswered.  This  state  of  affairs 
undoubtedly  prepared  the  way  for  the  invasion  of  the 
Israelites.  When  Joshua  entered  the  land  of  the 
Amorites  and  the  land  of  Canaan,  he  found  the  country 
broken  up  into  small  States,  governed  by  petty  kings,  or 
chiefs,  who  were  constantly  fighting  with  one  another. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  Adonibezek  spoke  of  seventy 
kings  whom  he  had  vanquished  and  captured,  and  whom 
he  mutilated  and  kept  in  his  palace,  where  they  gathered 
up  crumbs  under  his  table.  If  the  Egyptian  supremacy 
had  still  remained  unshaken  in  Western  Asia,  it  may  be 
conceived  that  the  conquest  of  Canaan  would  have  been, 
for  a  small  nation  like  the  Israelites,  exceedingly  difficult, 
if  not  impossible.  In  the  absence,  however,  of  a  sovereign 
power,  the  defeat  and  conquest  of  a  number  of  petty  inde- 
pendent chieftains  was  a  matter  of  comparative  facility. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SHUSHAN      THE      PALACE. 

THE  first  journey  made  by  M.  Marcel  Dieulafoy  to 
Persia,  in  1882,  resulted  in  the  publication  of  "  I? Art 
antique  de  la  Perse"  —&  work  which  is  now  one  of  the 
chief  authorities  on  the  antiquities  existing  in  the 
dominions  of  the  Shah.  During  this  expedition,  bow- 
ever,  the  enterprising  architect  and  engineer  had  not 
been  able  to  do  more  than  glance  at  the  remains  of 
Susa  ;  but  what  he  saw  had  filled  him  with  a  strong  desire 
to  bring  to  light  some  of  the  treasures  concealed  beneath 
the  three  mounds  which  the  natives  at  the  present  day 
designate  as  Shush.  Our  own  countryman,  Loftus,  had 
already  attacked  this  interesting  site  in  1852,  when  he 
formed  part  of  an  English  Commission  entrusted  with 
the  task  of  settling  the  boundary-line  between  the  Otto- 
man territories  and  the  Kingdom  of  Persia.  Profiting 
by  the  immunities  which  were  calculated  to  secure  them 
from  annoyance  on  a  spot  of  peculiar  sanctity,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  reputed  tomb  of  the  Prophet 
Daniel,  in  the  midst  of  a  population  notoriously  fana- 
tical in  character,  Loftus  and  his  companions  had  dug 
some  trenches  in  the  tumuli  of  Shush,  and  had  been  so 
far  successful  that  they  had  found  the  bases  of  a  few 


230  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

columns  and  the  sub-structure  of  an  edifice  built  in  the 
form  of  a  large  hypostyle  hall.  The  most  important 
discovery  made  by  the  English  excavators  was  that  of 
the  trilingual  cuneiform  inscriptions  on  the  bases  of  the 
columns ;  for  through  these  the  date  of  the  edifice 
became  at  once  incontestable.  The  words  engraved 
upon  the  stone,  in  the  same  characters  as  those  found 
at  Persepolis,  ran  as  follows  : — 

"  Thus  says  Artaxerxes,  the  great  king,  the  king  of  kings,  the 
king  of  all  the  countries  that  are  upon  this  earth,  the  son  of  Darius 
the  king,  who  was  the  son  of  Artaxerxes  the  king,  who  was  the  son 
of  Xerxes  the  king,  who  was  the  son  of  Darius  the  king, 
who  was  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  the  Achsemenid  :  '  My  ancestor 
Darius  built  this  Apaddtia  in  former  times.  In  the  reign 
of  Artaxerxes,  my  grandfather,  it  was  consumed  by  fire.  By 
the  grace  of  Ahuramazda,  Anaitis,  and  Mithras,  I  have  restored  this 
Apaddna.  May  Ahuramazda,  Anaitis,  and  Mithras  protect  me  from 
all  evil ;  and  may  they  preserve  from  destruction  this  that  I  have 
built.'" 

This  important  inscription,  written  in  Persian, 
Susian,  and  Babylonian,  at  once  fixed  the  period  of  the 
structure  discovered  by  Loftus  ;  it  had  been  first  erected 
by  Darius  Hystaspis  (B.C.  521-485),  partly  burnt  down 
in  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus  (B.C.  464-425), 
and  restored  by  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  (B.C.  406-359). 
The  order  of  the  Persian  kings  given  us  by  Greek 
historians  was  fully  confirmed  by  this  same  inscrip- 
tion. The  name  of  Anaitis  illustrated  a  passage  of  the 
Babylonian  historian,  Berosus,  quoted  by  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  to  the  effect  that  images  of  this  god- 
dess were  first  set  up  by  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  in  the 


SHUSH  AN    THE    PALACE.  231 

chief  towns  of  his  empire.  The  name  of  Mithras  con- 
firmed various  passages  in  ancient  authors,  which  allude 
to  the  worship  of  this  god  under  the  Achgemenian 
sovereigns. 

Loftus  was  not  able  to  carry  on  his  excavations. 
The  religious  susceptibilities  of  the  people  were  aroused; 
the  tomb  of  Daniel  was  thought  to  be  in  danger  of 
profanation  by  the  infidels.  After  the  departure  of  the 
English  mission,  the  cholera  broke  out  in  the  province 
of  Arabistan ;  it  was,  of  course,  attributed  to  the 
vengeance  of  the  prophet,  who  thus  punished  the 
Mussulmans  for  tolerating  the  presence  of  the  un- 
believers. Since  that  time  no  Europeans  had  stayed 
upon  the  spot. 

M.  Dieulafoy,  however,  was  not  deterred  by  the 
reputation  of  the  inhabitants  from  wishing  to  undertake 
new  excavations  at  Susa.  Interested  by  what  he  had 
seen  of  the  site  in  his  first  visit  to  Persia,  he  solicited, 
in  1884,  the  help  of  the  French  Government  to  enable 
him  to  return  thither,  and  to  make  fresh  researches 
among  the  tumuli.  He  received  the  promise  of  a  certain 
sum  of  money  ;  two  young  men  were  appointed  to  act  as 
his  assistants ;  and  equipments  wrere  furnished  by  the 
offices  of  war  and  marine.  The  chief  difficulty  lay  in 
obtaining  the  consent  of  the  Persian  Government,  and 
the  first  request  was  met  by  a  direct  refusal.  By  means, 
however,  of  a  European  physician  intimate  with  the 
Shah,  the  sovereign  himself  was  induced  to  take  an 
interest  in  the  matter.  It  was-  represented  to  him  that 
the  greatness  of  his  predecessors,  the  Achtemenian 


232  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

monarchs,  would  be  freshly  illustrated  by  the  excavation 
of  another  of  their  magnificent  residences,  and  that  his 
own  reputation  in  Europe  was  raised  whenever  he 
appeared  in  the  light  of  a  promoter  of  learning.  Finally, 
towards  the  end  of  1884,  the  Government  of  Nasr  ed-din 
Shah  gave  the  required  permission,  with  certain  qualifi- 
cations. 

"The  Persian  Government  offered  some  observations  with  regard 
to  the  tribes  of  marauders  inhabiting  Arabistan ;  formulated  certain 
fears  on  the  subject  of  local  fanaticism  ;  made  reservations  referring 
to  the  tomb  of  Daniel ;  required  a  share  of  the  objects  discovered ; 
claimed  sole  ownership  of  the  precious  metals ;  and  granted  us 
authority  to  make  excavations  in  the  tumuli  of  Elam." 

Accordingly,  M.  Dieulafoy  started  for  the  East, 
accompanied  by  the  rest  of  the  mission,  and,  above  all, 
by  Madame  Dieulafoy,  who  took  the  most  enthusiastic 
interest  in  the  expedition,  and  whose  "  Journal  of  the 
Excavations"  gives  us  a  lively  account  of  their  origin 
and  progress.  The  first  day  of  the  work  is  thus 
described  : — 

"March  1st,  1885. — The  excavations  at  Susa  were  to  begin 
to-day ;  Marcel  promised  this,  and  he  has  kept  his  word.  His 
battalion  is  not  brilliant :  an  old  Arab,  who  pastures,  for  want  of 
more  substantial  food,  on  the  young  thistles  in  the  valley ;  a  one- 
eyed  man,  who  has  come  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Prophet  Daniel,  in 
the  hope  of  obtaining  the  cure  of  his  second  eye,  already  compro- 
mised ;  the  son  of  a  widow,  dying  of  starvation,  also  under  the 
protection  of  Daniel  ;  two  supernumerary  soldiers,  our  servants,  and 
the  two  members  of  our  mission.  Armed  with  spades  and  pickaxes, 
we  made  our  way  towards  a  brick  wall,  made  visible  by  a  small 
landslip  near  our  tents. 

"  The  honour  of  inaugurating  the  work  had  been  reserved  for  me. 


SHUSHAN    THE    PALACE. 


233 


With  much  emotion,  I  seized  a  heavy  sapper's  pickaxe,  and  worked 
until  my  strength  was  extinguished  ;  Marcel  relieved  me,  and  our 
acolytes  carried  the  soil  away." 

The    character   of   the  population  with  which  the 
French  mission  had  to  deal,  and  the  real  dangers  that 


MODEB.M    TOWN    OF    SHUSTEK. 


they  incurred,  in  spite  of  the  protection  of  the  central 
government,  were  soon  apparent.  The  governor  of  the 
district,  Mozaffer  el  Molk,  was  so  much  alarmed  for  the 
safety  of  the  Europeans  entrusted  to  his  care,  that  only 
a  fortnight  after  their  arrival  at  Susa  he  addressed  the 
following  letter  to  M.  Dieulafoy  : — 


234  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  SIR, — The  Mussulmans  are  ignorant,  uncivilized,  and  unruly  ; 
they  are,  in  fact,  a  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  your  work.  In 
my  absence,  it  is  difficult  for  you,  I  believe,  to  direct  your  mission. 
The  tumult  of  passions  aroused  by  the  religion  of  Islam  will,  perhaps, 
cause  a  great  danger  to  you,  which  it  will  be  impossible  for  me  to 
prevent. 

"  It  would  be  better  for  you  to  leave  your  property  at  Dizful, 
and  to  come  and  stay  at  Sinister,  near  me. 

"After  my  return  to  Dizful,  you  will  proceed  with  your  business, 
with  the  escort,  the  support,  and  the  advice  of  the  Government." 

M.  and  Mme.  Dieulafoy  and  their  companions,  how- 
ever, were  not  so  easily  frightened.  They  saw  that  their 
work  would  be  much  delayed,  and,  perhaps,  could  never 
be  resumed,  if  they  acceded  to  the  governor's  proposal, 
and  they  determined  to  stick  to  their  post.  The  gravity 
of  the  risk  which  they  incurred  was  afterwards  explained 
to  them.  They  were  informed  that — 

"The  day  after  our  departure  [from  Dizful  for  Susa],  five  or  six 
hundred  fanatics,  roused  by  the  thought  that  Christians  were  about 
to  defile  the  tomb  of  Daniel  with  their  presence,  and,  perhaps,  to. 
steal  the  body  of  the  holy  prophet,  and  to  transport  this  palladium  of 
the  district  into  Frangistan,  assembled  in  the  mosques  of  the  town. 
These  defenders  of  the  faith  made  a  vow  either  to  expel  the  unbe- 
lievers by  main  force  or  to  massacre  them ;  and  with  this  object 
they  set  off  on  the  way  to  Susa. 

"Some  were  armed  with  bad  muskets  and  pistols,  others  with 
lances;  all — and  this  is  a  serious  matter — with  slings,  which,  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  of  Dizful,  are  a  terrible  weapon.  The  whole  troop, 
dancing  and  howling,  invoked  the  names  of  Ali  and  his  sons,  the  mar- 
tyrs of  Medina  and  Kerbela.  They  crossed  the  plain,  and  had  forded 
the  river — twelve  miles  separated  them  from  Susa — when  they  were 
joined  by  two  horsemen,  who  had  galloped  after  them  at  full  speed 
from  the  town.  These  were  the  sons  of  Sheikh  Mohammed  Taher. 
The  sheikh,  terrified  by  the  unauthorised  character  of  this  remark- 
able crusade,  had  enjoined  them  to  bring  back  the  demoniacs. 


SHUSHAN    THE   PALACE.  235 

"  At  first  the  young  men  were  scouted,  and  treated  as  unbe- 
lievers ;  but  they  succeeded  at  last  in  gaining  a  hearing.  The  Diz- 
fulis  consented  to  return  to  the  town,  under  the  solemn  promise  that 
a  deputation  of  descendants  of  Mahomet,  doctors  of  the  law,  and 
their  own  leaders,  should  make  next  day  the  severest  inquiries. 
If  the  Christians  had  violated  the  tomb  of  Daniel,  Sheikh  Taher 
in  person  would  lead  the  agents  of  justice,  and  preside  over  the 
massacre  of  the  criminals." 

After  a  time  the  religious  passions  of  the  people  grew 
calmer;  they  found  that  the  strangers  preserved  the  most 
careful  respect  for  the  shrine  of  the  prophet,  and  never 
allowed  themselves  to  approach  its  walls,  and,  moreover, 
that  they  were  ready  to  pay  good  wages  to  all  who  would 
work  for  them.  Accordingly,  the  idea  of  molesting  the 
French  mission  was  given  up,  the  excavators  were  left 
in  peace,  and  were  able  to  enroll  a  fair  body  of  workmen 
to  act  under  their  orders.  The  population  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Siisa  is  composed  of  three  entirely  distinct 
races,  and  M.  Dieulafoy  had  representatives  of  each  race 
under  his  orders ;  but  the  three  bands  had  no  dealings 
with  each  other. 

First,  there  were  the  Dizfulis  from  the  neighbouring 
town — a  people  of  mean  physique,  small  and  nervous, 
and  generally  affected  with  some  skin  disease,  who, 
nevertheless,  were  more  intelligent  and  did  more  work 
than  the  Persian  nomads.  The  latter  are  men  of  Aryan 
descent,  but  lead  a  similar  life  to  that  of  other  desert 
tribes ;  they  are  tall  and  powerful,  but  dull  and  stupid. 
It  is  thought  that  the  former  of  these  two  races  repre- 
sents the  aboriginal  Elamites  or  Susians,  and  that  the 
latter  may  be  descendants  of  the  Persians  who,  under 


236  NEW  LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

Cyrus,  conquered  the  country.  In  support  of  this 
theory,  it  is  alleged  that  the  vocabulary  of  the  Dizfulis 
is  full  of  words  foreign  to  the  language  of  the  Persians. 
The  third  class  of  labourers  employed  by  M.  Dieulafoy 
was  taken  from  the  Bedouin  Arabs. 

The  plains  of  Susiana  are  in  many  respects  similar 
to  those  of  Chaldsea.  The  rivers — no  longer  kept  in 
check  by  the  ancient  canals,  of  which  there  are  many 
traces — annually  turn  the  lands  upon  their  borders  into 
a  marsh.  The  Eulaeus,  or  Choaspes,  was  formerly  cele- 
brated as  the  river  of  Susa  :  it  was  the  Ulai  to  which 
Daniel  saw  himself  transported  in  a  vision.  Of  this 
stream  alone  the  Persian  monarchs  drank,  and  in  their 
expeditions  they  carried  with  them,  in  waggons,  silver 
casks  containing  its  waters.  Now,  under  the  name  of 
the  Kerkha,  it  spreads  over  the  swamps  or  loses  itself 
in  canals  choked  up  with  mud ;  not  a  town  or  hamlet 
is  to  be  seen  on  its  banks.  All  the  glories  of  Susiana, 
except  its  sun,  have  set ;  but  the  latter  is  still  so  power- 
ful that  it  forces  the  inhabitants  to  roof  their  narrow 
huts — built  of  palm-logs — with  thick  coatings  of  clay, 
as  in  the  time  of  Augustus. 

•M.  Dieulafoy  and  his  mission  spent  two  seasons  at 
Shush,  living  in  tents  on  provisions  purchased  from  the 
neighbouring  tribes,  and  working  indefatigably  at  the 
excavations.  There  are  three  mounds  on  the  spot.  One, 
higher  and  steeper  than  the  rest,  is  believed  to  be  the 
citadel  which  the  Greeks  named  the  Memnonium,  and 
supposed  to  have  been  built  at  the  time  of  the  siege  of 
Troy.  The  next  tumulus  is  lower,  but  covers  a  far 


238  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

larger  area  of  ground.  This  is  believed  to  conceal  the 
greater  part  of  the  remains  of  the  royal  palace,  including 
the  harem,  or  "  houses  of  the  women,"*  and  the  lodgings 
of  the  king  himself.  In  these  two  mounds  the  excava- 
tions have  not  been  fruitful.  Trenches  dug  in  the  citadel, 
to  the  depth  of  five  yards,  have  given  small  results.  In  the 
second  tumulus  large  sub-structures  of  brick  have  been 
found ;  the  ground-plan  of  a  keep  or  donjon  has  been 
traced ;  a  doorway,  and  part  of  the  bronze  plating  of  a 
door,  handsomely  decorated  witli  rosettes,  have  been 
discovered;  and  the  base  of  a  small  column,  in  the  form 
of  a  lotus-flower,  bearing  an  inscription  of  Darius,  the 
father  of  Xerxes,  has  been  disinterred.  The  researches 
on  the  third  mound — that  in  which  Loftus  laid  bare  the 
bases  of  four  columns — have  yielded  much  greater 
results.  They  have,  in  fact,  enabled  M.  Dieulafoy  to 
reconstruct  in  imagination,  with  all  its  details,  the 
structure  which  the  Persian  kings,  Darius  and  Arta- 
xerxes,  here  erected,  and  which  forms  the  scene  of  more 
than  one  narrative  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  This 
structure  is,  as  these  monarchs  themselves  call  it  in  their 
inscriptions,  an  Apaddna.  The  name  is  an  old  Persian 
one ;  and  in  the  Babylonian  version  of  the  inscriptions, 
where  the  Persian  text  has — 

"  I  have  built  this  Apadana," 

the  engraver  has  written — 

"I  have  built  this  which  is  called  Apadana," 
*  Esther  ii.  3,  9,  14,  etc. 


SHUSHAN    THE   PALACE.  239 

thus  proving  that  he  is  employing  a  word  foreign  to 
the  language  of  Babylon.  Nevertheless,  the  term  is 
borrowed  by  the  Prophet  Daniel  when  he  says  :— 

"  He  shall  plant  the  tabernacles  of  his  palace  between  the  seas, 
in  the  glorious  holy  mountain." 

The  plan  of  the  Apaddna  at  Susa  is  as  follows  :— 
There  is  a  square  hall,  supported  by  thirty-six  columns 
in  rows  of  six.  The  two  sides  and  back  of  the  hall  were 
composed  of  solid  walls  of  brick-work,  each  pierced  by 
four  doors  ;  the  front  of  the  hall  is  open.  On  each  side 
of  this  central  structure  are  two  porticoes,  each  formed 
of  two  rows  of  six  columns.  At  the  back  is  an  apart- 
ment of  no  great  depth,  but  of  the  same  width  as  the 
whole  building,  closed  on  all  sides,  except  where  the 
two  doors  give  admittance  into  the  central  hall.  At 
each  corner  of  the  building  stands  what  M.  Dieulafoy 
calls  a  "  pylon,"  composed  of  two  high  walls,  crowned 
with  battlements,  and  standing  at  right  angles  to  one 
another ;  these  "  pylons "  form  wings  at  each  side  of 
the  entrance  to  the  central  hall,  and  at  each  end  of  the 
two  colonnades  at  the  sides.  They  were  built  of  brick, 
like  the  rest  of  the  structure,  and  decorated  on  the 
outside  with  narrow  perpendicular  recesses  and  pro- 
jections, and  with  friezes  of  enamelled  bricks. 

The  whole  edifice  was  covered  by  a  flat  roof  of  cedar 
rafters,  supported  by  beams  of  the  same  wood,  which 
rest  on  the  summit  of  the  pillars ;  all  this  timber  was 
brought,  with  immense  labour,  from  Phoenicia.  The 
columns  are  of  the  same  order  as  those  found  at 


240 


NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Persepolis,  and  described  in   a  former  chapter.     A  tall 
slender    shaft,    resting  on  a  base  in  the  shape   of    an 


CAPITAL  OF  COLUMN  AT  SUSA. 


inverted  lotus-flower,  supports  a  massive  capital  formed 
of  a  bell  or  lotus,  above  which  rise  four  inverted  volutes, 
one  on  each  side,  capped  by  the  colossal  heads,  necks, 


SSUSHAN    THE   PALACE.  241 

and  bent  fore-legs  of  two  bulls,  facing  opposite  ways. 
The  columns,  delicately  fluted,  are  of  a  grey  limestone, 
which  becomes  dark  when  polished,  but  when  left 
untouched  appears  nearly  white.  The  walls  were  coated 
with  stucco,  coloured  red ;  the  floor  was  paved  with 
bricks.  The  doorways  and  false  windows  were  of  the 
same  grey  marble  as  the  pillars ;  they  were  surmounted 
by  a  projecting  Egyptian  cornice,  carved  into  the  form 
of  two  rows  of  lotus-leaves. 

The  enamelled  bricks  found  by  M.  Dieulafoy  at 
Susa  constitute  a  most  important  illustration  of  the 
history  of  the  ceramic  art.  Near  the  top  of  the  outer 
wall  of  the  "  pylons  "  was  a  frieze,  twelve  feet  in  height, 
representing  a  procession  of  lions  between  two  horizon- 
tal borders,  decorated  with  palmettes,  rosettes,  and 
denticulations.  The  beasts  stand  out  in  relief  from  a 
background  of  pale  turquoise-blue ;  they  are  conven- 
tionally treated,  both  in  design  and  in  colour;  the 
greater  part  of  their  bodies  is  greyish-white,  the 
muscles  are  marked  in  deep  yellow,  and  the  mane  is  of 
a  watery  green.  The  frieze  of  the  archers  is  even 
handsomer  than  this ;  it  is  about  fifteen  feet  in 
height,  and  ran  along  the  upper  part  of  the  side  walls 
of  the  Apaddna,  on  the  outer  face ;  it  exhibits  a  pro- 
cession of  "  Immortals,"  or  members  of  the  body-guard 
of  the  Persian  kings.  They  wear  long-sleeved  tunics, 
alternately  yellow  and  white,  spangled  either  with 
daisies  or  with  squares  enclosing  what  appears  to  be 
the  image  of  a  fortress ;  their  heads  are  crowned  with 
twisted  turbans  of  a  green  colour ;  they  wear  bracelets 


SHUSHAN    THE   PALACE.  243 

and  ear-rings,  and  are  shod  with  laced  boots  of  blue  or 
yellow.  They  are  armed  with  a  bow  and  quiver  and 
.carry  a  pike  or  lance,  the  shaft  of  which  ends  in  a  silver 
knob.  Their  nationality  is  shown  by  the  deep  brown 
of  their  skins  ;  they  came  from  the  province  or  satrapy 
of  India.  These  enamelled  bricks  remind  us,  in  some 
degree,  of  those  which  decorated  the  palaces  of  Assyria 
and  Babylonia ;  but  they  are  superior  in  colour  and 
design,  and  distinguished  by  the  fact  that  the  forms 
stand  out  in  relief. 

The  palace  of  the  Persian  kings  at  Susa  is  one  of 
the  very  few  buildings,  forming  the  scene  of  a  narrative 
in  the  Old  Testament,  which  have  been  sufficiently 
brought  to  light  by  modern  excavators  to  enable  us  to 
reconstruct  them  with  certainty  in  imagination.  The 
city  of  Susa  is  mentioned  in  three  books  of  the  Hebrew 
Canon:  in  the  Books  of  Daniel,  Nehemiah,  and  Esther. 

It  was  to  Susa  that  Daniel  was  transported  in  one 
of  his  visions.  He  says  : — 

"  In  the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  king  Belshazzar  a  vision 
appeared  unto  me,  even  unto  me  Daniel,  after  that  which  appeared 
unto  me  at  the  first. 

"  And  I  saw  in  a  vision  ;  and  it  came  to  pass,  when  I  saw,  that  I 
was  at  Shushan  in  the  palace,  which  is  in  the  province  of  Elam ;  and 
I  saw  in  a  vision,  and  I  was  by  the  river  of  TJlai. 

"  Then  I  lifted  up  mine  eyes,  and  saw,  and,  behold,  there  stood 
before  the  river  a  ram  which  had  two  horns :  and  the  two  horns 
were  high  ;  but  one  was  higher  than  the  other,  and  the  higher  came 
up  last. 

"  I  saw  the  ram  pushing  westward,  and  northward,  and  south- 
ward ;  so  that  no  beasts  might  stand  before  him,  neither  was  there 
any  that  could  deliver  out  of  his  hand  ;  but  he  did  according  to  his 
will,  and  became  great 

Q  2 


244  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"And  as  I  was  considering,  behold,  an  he-goat  came  from  the 
west  on  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  and  touched  not  the  groun  1  : 
and  the  goat  had  a  notable  horn  between  his  eyes. 

"  And  he  came  to  the  ram  that  had  two  horns,  which  I  had  seen 
standing  before  the  river,  and  ran  unto  him  in  the  fury  of  his 
power. 

"  And  I  saw  him  come  close  unto  the  ram,  and  he  was  moved 
with  choler  against  him,  and  smote  the  ram,  and  brake  his  two  horns  : 
and  there  was  no  power  in  the  ram  to  stand  before  him,  but  lie  cast 
him  down  to  the  ground,  and  stamped  upon  him  :  and  there  was  none 
that  could  deliver  the  ram  out  of  his  hand. 

"Therefore  the  he-goat  waxed  very  great:  and  when  he  was 
strong,  the  great  horn  was  broken  ;  and  for  it  came  up  four  notable 
ones  toward  the  four  winds  of  heaven. 

"  And  out  of  one  of  them  came  forth  a  little  horn,  which  waxed 
exceeding  great,  toward  the  south,  and  toward  the  east,  and  toward 
the  pleasant  land. 

"  And  it  waxed  great,  even  to  the  host  of  heaven ;  and  it  cast 
down  some  of  the  host  and  of  the  stars  to  the  ground,  and  stamped 
upon  them. 

"  Yea,  he  magnified  himself  even  to  the  prince  of  the  host,  and  by 
him  the  daily  sacrifice  was  taken  away,  and  the  place  of  his  sanctuary 
was  cast  down. 

"  And  an  host  was  given  him  against  the  daily  sacrifice  by  reason 
of  transgression,  and  it  cast  down  the  truth  to  the  ground  ;  and  it 
practised,  and  prospered. 

"  Then  I  heard  one  saint  speaking,  and  another  saint  said  unto 
that  certain  saint  which  spake,  How  long  shall  be  the  vision  con- 
cerning the  daily  sacrifice,  and  the  transgression  of  desolation,  to 
give  both  the  sanctuary  and  the  host  to  be  trodden  under  foot  1 

"And  he  said  unto  me,  Unto  two  thousand  and  three  hundred 
days ;  then  shall  the  sanctuary  be  cleansed." 

Such  was  the  vision  of  the  succession  of  dynasties, 
which  Daniel  saw  in  the  form  of  the  Apocalyptic  animals 
struggling  on  the  banks  of  the  Eulaeus  at  Susa. 

The  Book  of  Nehemiah  begins  as  follows  : — 


SHUSHAN    THE   PALACE.  245 

"The  words  of  Nehemiah  the  son  of  Hachaliah.  And  it  came  to 
pass  in  the  month  Chisleu,  in  the  twentieth  year,  as  I  was  in 
Shushan  the  palace, 

"  That  Hanani,  one  of  my  brethren,  came,  he  and  certain  men  of 
Judah;  and  I  asked  them  concerning  the  Jews  that  had  escaped, 
which  were  left  of  the  captivity,  and  concerning  Jerusalem. 

"  And  they  said  unto  me,  The  remnant  that  are  left  of  the  cap- 
tivity there  in  the  province  are  in  great  affliction  and  reproach  :  the 
wall  of  Jerusalem  also  is  broken  down,  and  the  gates  thereof  are 
burned  with  fire." 

A  few  verses  later  we  find  what  office  it  was  that 
Nehemiah  held  in  the  Palace  of  Susa,  when  he  tells  us 
as  follows : — 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  month  Nisan,  in  the  twentieth  year 
of  Artaxerxes  the  king,  that  wine  was  before  him  :  and  I  took  up 
the  wine,  and  gave  it  unto  the  king." 

He  occupied,  in  fact,  at  the  Persian  Court  the  post 
of  cupbearer — always  an  honourable  one  among  the 
ancients. 

The  whole  scene  of  the  Book  of  Esther  is  laid  at 
Susa.  The  narrative  thus  opens  : — 

"  Now  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Ahasuerus,  (this  is  Ahasuerus 
which  reigned,  from  India  even  unto  Ethiopia,  over  an  hundred  and 
seven  and  twenty  provinces  :) 

"  That  in  those  days,  when  the  king  Ahasuerus  sat  on  the  throne 
of  his  kingdom,  which  was  in  Shushan  the  palace, 

"  In  the  third  year  of  his  reign,  he  made  a  feast  unto  all  his 
princes  and  his  servants  ;  the  power  of  Persia  and  Media,  the  nobles 
and  princes  of  the  provinces,  being  before  him  ; 

"  When  he  shewed  the  riches  of  his  glorious  kingdom  and  the 
honour  of  his  excellent  majesty  many  days,  even  an  hundred  and 
fourscore  days. 

"  And  when  these  days  were  expired,  the  king  made  a  feast  unto 
all  the  people  that  were  present  in  Shushan  the  palace,  both  unto 


246  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

great  and  small,  seven  days,  in  the  court  of  the  garden  of  the  king's 
palace ; 

''  Where  were  white,  green,  and  blue  hangings,  fastened  with 
cords  of  fine  linen  and  purple  to  silver  rings  and  pillars  of  marble  : 
the  beds  were  of  gold  and  silver,  upon  a  pavement  of  red,  and  blue, 
and  white,  arid  black  marble. 

"And  they  gave  them  drink  in  vessels  of  gold,  (the  vessels  being 
diverse  one  from  another,)  and  royal  wine  in  abundance,  according 
to  the  state  of  the  king. 

"And  the  drinking  was  according  to  the  law  ;  none  did  compel  : 
for  so  the  king  had  appointed  to  all  the  officers  of  his  house,  that 
they  should  do  according  to  every  man's  pleasure." 

The  Persian  monarchs  of  the  Achsemenian  line  had, 
as  it  is  well  known,  four  principal  residences;  they  spent 
the  spring  at  Babylon,  the  summer  at  Ecbatana,  among 
the  cool  mountains  of  Media,  the  autumn  at  Persepolis, 
and  the  winter  at  Susa.  The  temperature  of  the  last 
place  is  exceedingly  high  during  part  of  the  year. 

"  Susiana  is  a  wealthy  province,  but  possesses  a  burning,  fiery 
climate,  especially  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  capital.  It  is  said 
that  lizards  and  serpents,  when  the  sun  is  at  its  full  height — -at  noon- 
tide in  summer — if  they  attempt  to  cro^s  the  streets  of  the  city,  are 
scorched  to  death  before  they  have  time  to  reach  the  other  side  (a 
thing  that  would  never  happen  at  Persepolis,  although  it  lies  farther 
to  the  south) ;  and  that  if  cold  water  is  set  out  in  the  sun  it  becomes 
hot  immediately,  and  barley  scattered  in  the  sun  is  parched  as  in  an 
oven ;  on  this  account  the  roofs  of  the  houses  are  covered  with  earth 
two  cubits  in  depth,  and  the  houses  are  built  narrow  but  long,  for 
there  is  a  lack  of  large  timber,  and  yet  the  rooms  must  be  as  large  as 
possible,  to  avoid  suffocation.  .  .  .  The  reason  of  the  heat  is  said 
to  be  that  there  is  a  range  of  high  mountains  lying  towards  the 
north,  which  keeps  off  all  the  winds  from  that  quarter."  * 

We  know  from  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  that  Susa 
had  been  the  capital  of  the  ancient  Elamite  kings  long 

*  Strabo,  xv.  3. 


SHUSHAN    THE    PALACE.  247 

before  the  province  was  conquered  by  Cyrus.  The 
Greeks  believed  the  crty  to  have  existed  in  the  time  of 
the  Trojan  war,  but  we  have  better  evidence  of  its 
antiquity  in  the  testimony  of  Sardauapalus,  who  states 
that  Kudurnankhundi,  the  Elamite  king,  had  carried 
off  the  image  of  Nana  from  Babylonia  to  Susa  in 
B.C.  22SO.  The  name  is  Shushan  in  Assyrian,  as  in 
Hebrew.  Sardanapalus  sacked  the  city  about  B.C.  650  ; 
he  says : — 

"  I  conquered  Shushan,  the  great  city,  the  dwelling  of  their  gods. 

By  the  command  of  Ashur  and  Ishtar,  I  entered  into  the 
palaces,  and  sojourned  there  with  joy.  I  opened  their  treasuries,  in 
which  gold,  silver,  and  other  possessions  were  stored,  which  the 
ancient  kings  of  Elam  and  the  kings  who  have  reigned  there  up  to 
this  day  collected  and  placed  there  ;  on  which  no  other  enemy 
besides  me  had  laid  his  hand.  I  brought  it  out  and  accounted  it  as 
my  booty.  Silver,  gold,  and  other  possessions,  the  property  of  Baby- 
lonia, which  the  earlier  kings  of  Elam  had  carried  away  in  seven 
expeditions,  and  brought  to  Elam.  .  .  .  Jewels,  a  costly 
treasure,  such  as  beseemed  the  royal  dignity,  which  former  kings  of 
Babylonia  had  sent  to  Elam  to  make  alliance  with  its  kings  ;  garments 
such  as  beseemed  the  royal  dignity  ;  weapons  of  war ;  furniture, 
which  had  been  brought  into  the  palaces,  upon  which  the  kings  had 
sat  and  laid  down,  out  of  which  they  had  eaten  and  drunk,  poured 
libations  and  anointed  themselves;  chariots  and  waggons;  horses  with 
bridles  of  gold  or  silver  ;  all  this  I  carried  away  as  booty  to  Assyria. 
The  temple-tower  of  Shushan,  faced  with  alabaster,  I  destroyed 

.  their  gods  and  goddesses,  with  their  treasures,  their 
possessions,  their  vessels,  their  priests,  I  carried  away  to  Assyria. 
Thirty-two  statues  of  kings,  of  silver,  gold,  bronze,  and  stone 
....  I  took  with  me  to  Assyria." 

A  hundred  years  later,  Susiana  became  part  of  the 
empire  of  Cyrus  ;  but  the  conqueror   did  not  make  it 


248  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

one  of  his  capitals.  It  was  his  son,  Cambyses,  who 
formed  the  design  of  building  a  great  palace  at  Susa. 
He  sent  a  body  of  workmen  from  Egypt,  according  to 
the  tradition  current  in  that  country  at  the  time  of 
Augustus,  to  construct  residences  for  himself  at  Ecba- 
tana,  Persepolis,  and  Susa.  The  Persians  had  no 
architecture  of  their  own ;  they  were  backward  in  all 
the  arts ;  and  on  this  account  Cambyses  chose  builders 
from  Egypt,  so  famous  for  its  great  temples  and  palaces, 
to  build  for  him  in  his  own  country.  But  his  early 
death  prevented  him  from  carrying  out  his  designs  ; 
and  it  was  his  successor,  Darius,  who,  as  the  already 
quoted  inscriptions  tell  us,  was  actually  the  founder 
of  the  palaces  of  Persepolis  and  Susa.  The  employment 
of  Egyptian  architects,  however,  accounts  for  many 
features  in  the  construction  and  decoration  of  these 
buildings.  The  architecture  of  the  AchaBinenian  period 
was  a  combination  of  forms  borrowed  from  Assyria  and 
Egypt,  the  two  most  civilized  provinces  of  the  empire 
of  Cambyses  and  Darius.  Everyone  must  recognise  the 
influence  of  Egypt  in  the  lotus-flowers  of  the  columns 
at  Susa,  the  volutes,  and  the  animals'  heads  in  the 
capitals  of  the  columns  ;  the  cornice  of  the  doorways 
is  purely  Egyptian ;  the  traditions  of  the  Nile  are 
as  distinctly  to  be  recognised  here  as  those  of  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  in  the  winged  bulls  at 
Persepolis,  or  the  lions  in  the  frieze  of  glazed  bricks. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  something  quite  distinctive  in 
Persian  architecture ;  the  foreign  forms  are  combined, 
and  modified  by  the  spirit  of  the  ruling  race. 


SHUSH  AN    THE    PALACE.  249 

M.  Dieulafoy  thus  describes  his  own  impressions  of 
the  Persian  palaces  : — 

"  For  my  part,  when  I  try  to  restore  these  grand  structures  in 
my  fancy  :  when  I  seem  to  see  those  porticoes  of  marble  or  porphyry 
columns  :  those  double-headed  bulls,  the  horns,  feet,  eyes,  and  collars 
of  which  mnst  have  been  overlaid  with  a  thin  sheet  of  gold  :  the 
cedar  beams  and  rafters  of  the  intablature  and  the  roof;  the  designs 
in  brick- work,  like  heavy  lace,  standing  out  upon  the  walls  ;  the 
cornices  covered  with  enamelled  tiles  of  turquoise-blue  glittering  in 
the  sunlight  :  when  I  think  of  the  draperies  hung  before  the  doors, 
the  delicate  open  wood-work  of  the  mashrabiyehs,  the  thick  carpets 
laid  upon  the  pavement,  I  ask  myself  sometimes  whether  the  religious 
monuments  of  Egypt,  or  the  very  temples  of  Greece  itself,  ought  to 
produce  upon  the  imagination  of  the  visitor  so  strong  an  impression 
as  the  palaces  of  the  great  king." 

The  Apaddna  of  Darius  and  Artaxerxes  at  Susa, 
excavated  by  M.  Dieulafoy,  was  probably  the  Hall  of 
the  Knob-bearers,  or  body-guard,  in  which  the  king 
often  sat  with  his  ~wives,  who  sang  and  played  the  harp. 
The  knob-bearers,  or  Melopkori,  were  a  band  of  a 
thousand  picked  men,  selected  from  the  ten  thousand 
Immortals  ;  their  name  alludes  to  the  knob  at  the  end 
of  their  pikes.  When  the  great  king  walked  through 
the  hall  he  trod  upon  Sardian  carpets,  reserved  exclu- 
sively for  his  own  royal  feet;  and  when  he  reached  the 
entrance  he  mounted  his  chariot  by  a  golden  footstool, 
always  carried  behind  him  by  a  slave  for  that  purpose. 
When  Darius  or  Xerxes  gave  judgment,  or  consulted  his 
counsellors  in  this  hall,  he  sat  upon  a  golden  throne, 
under  a  crimson  canopy,  embroidered  with  gold'  and 
stretched  upon  golden  supports.  In  the  sculptures  of 
Persepolis  we  see  very  careful  representations  of  the! 


250 


NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


royal  throne,  which  appears  to  be  after  the  Assyrian 

pattern.    Each 
side      of      the 
canopy  is  simi- 
larly decorated 
with  two  bands 
of  different  de- 
sign, one  above 
the    other ;     a 
horizontal  row 
of    daisies      is 
I     divided    by    a 
U     strip     from    a 
\     row    of  bulls ; 

4 

in   the  middle 

4 

I     is  the   winged 
s     figure  of  Ahu- 
§     ramazda. 
|  In      this 

I  very  Apaddna 
Xerxes  must 
have  held  the 
banquet  de- 
scribed in  the 
Book  of  Esther, 
and  consulted 
with  his  chief 
men  on  the 
project  of  war 
with  Greece. 


SHUSHAN    THE    PALACE.  251 

We  know  from  Herodotus  what  the  council-meetings 
of  the  Persians  were  like  ;  they  were  literally  ''  ban- 
quets," or,  rather,  "  drinkiug-bouts,"  as  the  Book  of 
Esther  calls  them  :  — 

"  They  are  accustomed  to  debate  upon  the  most  important  matters 
when  they  are  drunk  ;  and  whatever  they  approve  in  their  debate  is 
proposed  to  them  on  the  next  day,  when  they  are  sober,  by  their  host, 
in  whose  house  they  happen  to  be  deliberating,  and  if  they  still 
approve  the  matter  when  they  are  sober,  they  finally  decide  upon  it. 
But  if  they  have  a  preliminary  consultation  upon  any  matter  while 
they  are  sober,  they  debate  it  afresh  when  they  are  drunk." 

The  Persians  were  much  given  to  wine,  although  this 
must  have  been  an  expensive  luxury  among  them  ;  for 
no  vines  were  grown  in  Susiana  or  Persia  until  the 
Macedonians  planted  them,  at  the  time  of  Alexander's 
conquest.  The  Persian  kings  had  their  wine  imported  ; 
they  only  drank  Chalybonian,  which  must  be  the 
"  royal  wine  "  of  Esther  i.  7. 

The  royal  banquets  of  Persia  are  thus  described  :  — 


"  Those  who  wait  upon  the  kings  of  the  Persians  at  their 
meal  all  wash  themselves  before  they  serve,  and  wear  fair  garments, 
and  busy  themselves  almost  half  the  day  over  the  meal.  Some  of 
the  king's  guests  eat  without,  and  these  can  be  seen  by  any  who 
wish  ;  and  others  eat  within,  with  the  king.  But  the  latter  do  not 
sit  at  the  same  table  with  him,  for  there  are  two  rooms  next  to  one 
another,  in  one  of  which  the  king  takes  his  meal,  and  in  the  other 
the  guests  ;  and  the  king  can  see  them,  through  the  curtain  which 
hangs  over  the  door,  but  they  cannot  see  him.  Some,  however, 
if  it.  is  a  feast-day,  eat  in  the  same  room  with  the  king,  in  the 
great  house.  And  when  the  king  has  a  drinking  party  (and  this 
he  often  does),  he  generally  has  twelve  boon  companions.  When 
they  have  finished  their  meal,  the  king  sitting  by  himself  and  the 
guests  without,  one  of  the  eunuchs  calls  the  latter  in  ;  and  when  they 
enter  they  drink  with  the  king,  but  not  the  same  wine  ;  and  they  sit  on 


25-J  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

the  ground,  but  he  reclines  on  a  couch  with  golden  feet ;  and  when 
they  are  drunk  they  go  away.  Generally  the  king  breakfasts  and 
sups  alone  ;  but  sometimes  his  wife  and  some  of  his  sons  sup  with 
him,  and  the  ladies  of  the  harem  sing  and  play  the  harp  during  the 
meal."  * 

At  some  of  the  royal  banquets,  however,  it  is  said 
that  fifteen  thousand  men  were  present,  and  that  the 
expense  of  the  meal  amounted  to  four  hundred  talents,! 
or  about  £1  7s.  a  head  in  our  money. 

The  Persians  were  also  celebrated  for  the  variety  of 
their  drinking  vessels,  "  diverse  one  from  the  other,"  in 
the  words  of  the  Book  of  Esther.  Several  forms  are 
mentioned  by  Greek  authors :  one  kind  of  cup  re- 
sembled a  golden  egg,  out  of  which  the  king  drank. 
Alexander  found  many  gold,  silver,  and  jewelled  cups 
among  the  treasures  of  the  Persian  kings  ;  and  he  him- 
self gives  a  list  of  such,  naming  the  various  sorts  of 
drinking-vessels,  which  cannot  all  now  be  identified. 
There  were 

"  Three  silver-gilt  batiacce  ;  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  silver 
condya  ;  thirty-three  of  the  same,  gilded  ;  one  silver  tisigites  ;  thirty- 
two  silver-gilt  spoons  ;  one  silver  vegetable-dish ;  one  silver  wine-jar  of 
foreign  workmanship,  enamelled  with  colours  ;  twenty-nine  other 
small  drinking-vessels  of  every  shape  ;  drinking-horns,  batia,  gilded 
vessels  of  Lycian  workmanship  ;  censers  and  bowls." 

Many  ancient  customs  of  the  Persian  Court  have 
been  retained  during  the  different  dynasties  down  to 
modern  times  ;  and  Anthony  Sherley,  whose  name,  has 
already  appeared  in  former  chapters,  witnessed  a  series 
of  banquets  at  the  Court  of  Shah  Abbas,  which  recall  to 

*  Heraclides  in  Atheiiseus,  iv.  26. 

t  Ctesias  and  Dino,  in  Atheiiaeus,  iv.  27. 


SHUSHAN    THE    PALACE.  253 

the  reader  the  scenes  described  in  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Book  of  Esther  :— 

"  For  thirty  days  continuallie  the  king  made  that  feast  in  a  great 
garden  of  more  than  two  miles  compasse,  under  tents  pitched  by 
certain  small  courses  of  running  water,  like  divers  rivers,  where 
everie  man  that  would  come  was  placed  according  to  his  degree, 
either  under  one  or  other  tent,  provided  for  abundantlie  with 
meate,  fruite,  and  wine ;  drinking  as  they  would,  some  largelie,  some 
moderatelie,  without  compulsion.  A  roialty  and  splendor  which  I 
have  not  seene,  nor  shall  not  see  againe  but  by  the  same  king  : 
our  princes  abhorring  such  vaine  expences  ;  desiring  rather  to  have 
the  power  of  dominion  than  to  make  those  sorts  of  ostentation." 

When  Alexander  took  Susa,  in  B.C.  330,  he  found 
a  vast  treasure  in  the  palace,  including  five  thousand 
talents  of  uncoined  gold  and  silver.  There  was  also  a 
store  of  nine  thousand  talents  of  gold  in  coin  :  that  is  to 
say,  consisting  of  the  well-known  Darics,  first  introduced 
by  Darius  Hystaspis.  One  of  the  historians  of  Alex- 
ander tells  a  little  anecdote  of  an  incident  which  we 
may  suppose  to  have  occurred  in  the  Apaddna  excavated 
by  M.  Dieulafoy  : — 

"  Alexander  took  his  seat  upon  the  royal  throne,  but  it  was  too 
high  for  his  stature.  One  of  the  slaves,  seeing  that  his  feet  did  not 
reach  the  footstool  in  front  of  the  throne,  brought  the  table  of  Darius, 
and  placed  it  under  Alexander's  feet,  which  were  hanging  in  the  air,  and 
as  it  fitted  his  requirements, the  king  accepted  the  good  suggestion  thus 
made.  But  one  of  the  eunuchs  who  stood  by  the  throne,  moved  in 
his  spirit  by  the  changes  of  fortune  which  he  beheld,  wept;  and  when 
Alexander  asked  him  :  '  What  harm  have  you  seen  done  that  makes 
you  weep  1 '  the  eunuch  said  :  '  Now  I  am  your  slave,  but  formerly 
I  was  the  slave  of  Darius ;  and  as  it  is  my  duty  to  love  my  master, 
I  am  pained  by  seeing  a  piece  of  furniture,  which  he  put  to  an 
honourable  use,  now  dishonoured.'  When  the  king  was  reminded  by 


254  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

this  answer  of  the  great  change  that  had  taken  place  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  Persian  monarchy,  he  suspected  that  he  had  been  guilty  of 
an  act  of  pride,  contrasting  with  his  former  generosity  towards  the 
captive  princesses.  Therefore  he  called  the  attendant  who  had 
brought  the  table,  and  bid  him  take  it  away  again.  Thereupon 
Philotas  remarked  :  '  Nay,  it  is  no  pride,  since  the  thing  was  not 
commanded  by  you  ;  but  it  is  done  by  the  purpose  and  counsel  of 
some  good  spirit.'  Then  the  king,  accepting  this  saying  as  a  good 
omen,  commanded  that  they  should  leave  the  table  standing  at  the 
foot  of  the  throne." 

When  Alexander  afterwards  captured  Persepolis,  he 
took  his  seat  in  a  similar  manner  on  the  throne  of  the 
great  king  in  the  Persepolitan  palace  : — 

"  When  he  first  sat  under  the  golden  canopy,  on  the  royal  seat, 
the  Corinthian  Demaratus,  who  had  been  a  friend  of  his  father, 
remarked,  with  tears  of  emotion,  that  those  Greeks  had  been  de- 
prived of  a  great  pleasure  who  had  died  before  they  could  see 
Alexander  sitting  on  the  throne  of  Darius." 

Among  the  treasures  at  Susa,  Alexander  found  the 
famous  bronze  statues  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton, 
who  had  freed  Athens  from  the  tyranny  of  the  sons  of 
Pisistratus,  but  died  as  the  martyrs  of  liberty.  The 
statues  were  the  work  of  Praxiteles.  The  Macedonian 
conqueror,  the  great  object  of  whose  life  was  to  obtain 
the  applause  of  the  Athenians,  sent  them  back  to  their 
city,  whence  they  had  been  carried  away  by  Xerxes, 
during  his  invasion  of  Greece. 

Perhaps  no  book  in  the  Hebrew  Canon  has  received 
so  many  elucidations  from  secular  sources  as  the  Book 
of  Esther.  Much  of  the  history  may  be  compared  with 
that  of  Herodotus  ;  the  assembly  of  nobles  and  princes 


SHUSHAN   THE   PALACE.  25^ 

in  the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  Ahasuerus,  reminds  us 
of  the  council  which  Xerxes  called  at  Susa,  in  the  third 
year  of  his  reign  (B.C.  483),  to  deliberate  upon  the 
proposed  invasion  of  Greece.  Esther  entered  the  palace 
in  the  seventh  year,  hy  which  time  Xerxes  had  returned 
to  Susa  from  his  ill-fated  expedition.  The  name  of 
India,  which  occurs  in  this  book  alone  in  the  Old 
Testament,  is  found  among  the  list  of  the  satrapies  in 
the  Greek  historian.  Many  other  points  referring  to 
the  character  of  the  monarch,  and  to  Persian  customs, 
are  illustrated  by  Herodotus  and  other  Greek  writers. 
Since  the  beginning  of  this  century  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions  have  contributed  their  share  to  the  elucida- 
tion of  this  book.  Grotefend's  first  discovery  showed 
that  the  name  of  the  king,  in  its  Hebrew  form,  was  a 
very  close  reproduction  of  the  native  name  of  Xerxes. 
Achashverosh  contains  all  the  consonants  of  Chshyarsha, 
only  the  y  is  changed  to  v.  The  initial  A  is  the  result 
of  the  inability  of  the  Semitic  races  to  pronounce  two 
consonants  together  at  the  beginning  of  a  word  ;  in  the 
same  way  the  Arabs  call  Plato  "  Iflatun."  The  vowels 
of  the  name  Achashverosh  are,  of  course,  to  be  taken  with 
all  reserve ;  they  are  those  of  the  Massorah.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  compare  the  form  of  the  name  of  Chshyarsha, 
or  Xerxes,  used  by  the  Hebrews,  with  that  employed  by 
the  Babylonians,  their  kinsmen.  In  the  trilingual 
inscriptions  of  Persia,  the  name  appears  in  Babylonian 
as  Chishiyarsha ;  but  in  the  contracts  of  Babylonia  we 
meet  with  the  forms,  Achshiyarshu,  Akkashiyarshi,  and 
a  very  corrupt  form,  Akohiakarshu.  The  cuneiform 


•loB  NEW  LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

inscriptions  have  thus  enabled  us  finally  to  reject  the 
identification  of  the  name  Achashverosh  with  Artaxerxes, 
given  by  the  Septuagint  and  Josephus.  Saint  Jerome 
simply  reproduced  the  Hebrew,  as  closely  as  possible, 
in  his  form  Assuerus ;  and  our  translators  followed  him 
with  Ahasuerus. 

Many  other  Persian  words  are  found  in  the  Book  of 
Esther,  in  forms  closely  corresponding  with  those  of  the 
time  of  Xerxes. .  The  proper  names  of  the  Persian 
nobles  and  others  present  difficulties  ;  but  M.  Oppert  has 
proposed  explanations  of  nearly  all  of  them.  With 
regard  to  the  names  of  the  eunuchs,  M.  Oppert  remarks 
that  perhaps  the  latter  were  not  Persians  ;  and  here  he 
would  seem  to  be  right :  for  we  are  expressly  told  that 
slaves  of  this  sort  were  sought  for  in  the  neighbouring 
countries.*  But,  after  all,  our  knowledge  of  the  old 
Persian  language  is  small.  Much  more  material  might 
be  found  to  elucidate  the  Book  of  Esther,  and  other 
parts  of  the  Hebrew  Canon,  if  the  mounds  of  Shush  were 
more  fully  excavated  and  made  to  give  up  all  their 
treasures.  We  know  very  little  even  of  what  the 
Greeks  wrote  about  Persia  in  the  time  of  Xerxes,  his 
predecessors  and  his  successors  ;  but  we  are  never  likely 
to  recover  the  lost  works  of  Dinon  of  Rhodes,  Dionysius 
of  Miletus,  Charon  of  Lampsacus,  Aristides  of  Miletus, 
Agatharchides  of  Samos,  Balon  of  Sinope,  Chrysermus 
of  Corinth,  Ctesiphon,  or  Pharnuchus  of  Nisibis — all  of 
whom  devoted  complete  works  to  the  history  of  Persia. 

*  Clearclius  in  Athenaeus,  xii.  9 ;  Herodotus,  iii.  92. 


SHUSHAN   THE   PALACE.  .  257 

If,  however,  tlie  tumuli  which  still  conceal  part  of  the 
famous  palace  of  Shushan  were  thoroughly  searched,  we 
might  obtain  much  more  valuable  documents  in  the 
form  of  inscriptions  in  the  name  of  the  great  king  him- 
self, and  the  very  remains  of  the  building  in  which  he 
lived. 


n 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    STAR-GAZERS    OV    BABYLON. 

IN  a  celebrated  romance  of  the  second  century  we  read 
of  a  certain  Chaldsean  astrologer  named  Diophanes, 
who  travelled  from  place  to  place  in  different  parts  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  succeeded  in  making  a  consi- 
derable fortune  by  his  predictions.  He  was  sought 
after  by  youths  and  maidens  who  wished  to  learn  which 
day  would  be  a  lucky  one  for  their  wedding ;  he  was 
consulted  by  merchants  anxious  to  know  the  propitious 
moment  for  striking  a  bargain ;  enquiries  were  regu- 
larly made  of  him  as  to  when  the  foundations  of  a  house 
might  be  laid,  or  when  a  ship  should  sail  that  she  might 
safely  arrive  in  port,  or  when  a  traveller  might  start 
upon  a  journey  without  fear  of  thieves. 

Unfortunately,  however,  for  his  reputation,  Diophanes 
arrived  at  a  certain  town  in  Thessaly.  Here  he  was 
standing  one  day  in  the  market-place,  surrounded  by  a 
circle  of  enquirers,  when  a  merchant  named  Cerdo  came 
up,  and  asked  at  what  hour  the  stars  would  be  favourable 
to  the  undertaking  of  a  journey  to  a  distant  region, 
which  his  business  required  him  to  visit.  The  Chaldsean 
solemnly  consulted  his  mysterious  documents,  and 
selected  a  lucky  day  for  the  proposed  start ;  accordingly 


THE    STAR-GAZERS    OF   BABYLON'.  259 

the  merchant  pulled  out  his  purse,  and  began  to  extract 
the  customary  fee  of  a  hundred  denarii,  or  about  £3  10s.* 
But  at  that  moment  a  young  man  made  his  way  through 
the  crowd,  approached  the  astrologer,  and  affectionately 
saluted  the  latter,  who  was  so  much  surprised  at  the 
unexpected  arrival  of  his  friend  that  he  forgot  the  trans- 
action in  hand.  "  How  did  you  fare,"  asked  the  new- 
comer, "  on  the  way  hither  from  Euboea,  where  I  last 
saw  you?"  "Never  was  there  so  unlucky  a  journey," 
answered  the  fortune-teller.  "  It  was  like  the  wanderings 
of  Ulysses ;  I  could  not  desire  a  worse  experience  for 
my  greatest  enemy.  First,  we  were  shipwrecked  upon 
a  desolate  coast,  and  then,  when  some  of  us  had  swum 
to  shore  through  the  raging  waves,  we  were  attacked 
by  a  party  of  thieves,  and  my  only  brother  was  slain 
before  my  eyes."  While  the  astrologer,  put  off  his 
guard  by  the  unlooked-for  meeting,  was  making  these 
frank  admissions  of  his  inability  to  protect  himself  from 
ill-fortune,  in  spite  of  all  his  knowledge  of  the  stars, 
the  merchant  who  had  just  consulted  him  listened  with 
all  his  ears,  and  finally,  before  the  Chaldsean  could  see 
what  his  client  was  doing,  gathered  up  the  coins  that 
he  had  already  laid  down,  and  quietly  made  off  through 
the  crowd.  Diophanes,  discovering  the  absence  of  the 
money,  was  further  aroused  to  a  sense  of  his  own 
imprudence  by  the  loud  laughter  of  the  circle  of  by- 
standers. 

This  story  shows  at  once  the  repute  in  which  the 

*  That  is  to  say,  if  the  silver  denarius  is  intended ;  there  was  also  a 
copper  denarius. 

R   2 


260  NEW  LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

Chaldsean  astrologers  were  generally  held  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  the  opinion  which  educated  men  had  of 
their  honesty.  The  fame  of  the  knowledge  which  the 
philosophers  of  Babylonia  had  acquired  of  the  stars,  and 
of  their  influence  upon  human  life,  ensured  especial 
credit  for  the  fortune-tellers  who  came  from  that  region ; 
they  were  more  readily  believed  than  any  others.  The 
Roman  ladies  especially  were  accustomed  to  consult 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  more  intelligent  minds 
received  the  utterances  of  the  Chaldseans  with  incredulity. 
A  Roman  philosopher  of  the  second  century  once  de- 
livered a  lecture  on  this  very  subject.  The  so-called 
science  of  astrology  was,  he  said,  the  invention  of  needy 
impostors,  who  did  not  scruple  to  seek  their  living  by 
deceiving  others.  To  make  their  assertions  plausible, 
they  pointed  out  certain  visible  influences  exercised  by 
the  heavenly  bodies  upon  the  course  of  events  on  our 
earth :  as,  for  instance,  on  the  tides  of  the  ocean,  which 
appear  to  be  controlled  by  the  moon.  Even  if  these 
influences  were  actually  exercised  on  human  life  and 
human  actions,  it  would  be  impossible  for  mortals  to 
perceive  them  and  to  be  able  to  predict  their  results. 
At  the  most,  a  vague  idea  of  the  form  that  such  in- 
fluences would  take  would  be  all  that  the  human  mind 
could  reach  ;  to  know  more  than  this  would  be  omni- 
science, and  would  remove  the  boundary  between  gods 
and  men.  In  the  next  place,  if  we  allow  the  statement 
of  the  astrologers,  that  the  heavenly  influences  and  their 
manifestations  had  been  studied  on  the  plains  of  Baby- 
lonia for  many  thousands  of  years,  the  result  of  such 


THE    STAR-GAZERS    OF   BABYLON.  261 

studies  would  be  applicable  to  that  region  alone,  since 
the  phenomena  of  the  sky  vary  according  to  the  position 
of  the  observer.  Further,  the  philosopher  asked,  acutely 
anticipating  the  discoveries  of  modern  astronomy,  how 
can  it  be  taken  as  proved  that  there  are  no  other  planets 
in  the  sky  besides  those  seven  which  are  vulgarly 
accepted,  and  are  held  by  their  motions  among  the  con- 
stellations to  point  out  the  destinies  of  men  ?  But  if 
there  are  other  planets,  which,  because  of  their  distance 
or  the  excessive  brilliancy  of  their  rays,  are  not  percep- 
tible to  human  vision,  a  knowledge  of  the  movements 
of  these  wandering  stars,  as  well  as  of  the  seven  already 
known  to  us,  would  be  indispensable  to  an  accurate 
astrological  prediction.  But,  in  any  case,  how  can  a 
sufficient  number  of  observations,  extending  over  innu- 
merable centuries,  have  been  taken  to  justify  the  pre- 
diction of  the  events  of  each  man's  life  according  to  the 
position  of  the  stars  at  the  hour  at  which  he  was  born, 
especially  since  the  necessity  of  noting  the  exact  moment 
of  birth  is  clear  from  the  diversity  of  the  fates  of  men 
born  within  a  very  short  distance  of  time  from  one 
another,  and  from  the  variety  of  fortune  which  befalls 
even  twins  ?  The  philosopher  remarked,  moreover,  that 
the  same  fate  overtakes  many  at  the  same  moment,  who 
yet  were  born  under  very  different  aspects  of  the  stars : 
as,  for  instance,  in  war,  when  a  city  is  sacked,  in  a  ship- 
wreck, or  in  an  earthquake.  How  can  this  be  recon- 
ciled with  the  doctrine  that  the  different  positions  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  indicate  a  different  course  of  events 
in  each  man's  life  ?  In  spite  of  all  this,  however,  these 


262  NEW    LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

astrologers  are  widely  credited,  because  perhaps  from 
time  to  time  they  seem  to  hit  upon  the  truth,  partly  by 
accident  and  partly  because  they  purposely  use  vague 
and  ambiguous  language  in  uttering  their  prophecies. 
The  philosopher  concluded  his  lecture  by  warning  his 
hearers  to  pay  no  heed  to  such  impostors,  who  stuff  the 
ears  of  their  hearers  with  a  wealth  of  falsehood  in  order 
that  they  may  fill  their  own  purses  with  gold.  If  they 
foretell  good  fortune,  and  the  event  belies  them,  the  dis- 
appointment will  be  bitter ;  if  they  predict  evil,  and  it 
does  not  come  to  pass,  it  has  yet  already  existed  in  the 
miseries  of  anticipation  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
knowledge  of  misfortune  before  it  arrives  only  doubles  the 
unkindness  of  fate,  and  the  suspense  caused  by  deferred 
happiness  heavily  discounts  the  expected  enjoyment. 

Perhaps  the  most  famous  instance  known  to  history 
of  the  predictions  of  the  Babylonian  star-gazers — one, 
too,  which  was  believed  to  have  been  duly  fulfilled — is 
the  prophecy  of  the  priests  of  Bel  concerning  the  fate 
that  would  befall  Alexander  the  Great  if  he  should  enter 
the  city  of  Babylon  on  his  return  from  his  Indian  cam- 
paign. How  far  treachery  lent  its  aid  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  prediction  we  shall  never  know.  The 
Chaldean  priests  were  also  believed  to  have  foretold  the 
deaths  of  Antigonus  and  Seleucus.  When  the  latter 
was  about  to  found,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  the  new 
capital  which  he  designed  to  take  the  place  of  Babylon, 
and  to  bear  his  own  name,  he  consulted  the  astrologers 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  country,  in  order  to 
learn  which  day  and  hour  would  be  fortunate  for  laying 


THE    STAR-GAZERS    OF   BABYLON.  263 

the  first  stone  of  the  city.  The  priests,  however, 
attempted  to  deceive  their  foreign  ruler,  who  was  taking 
a  step  which  would  lead  to  the  final  ruin  of  Babylon, 
that  ancient  home  of  the  gods ;  and  Seleucus  was  in- 
formed that  such  and  such  a  time,  in  reality  most  un- 
propitious,  would  be  favourable  to  the  success  of  the 
enterprise.  The  Macedonian  king,  however,  was  led  by 
circumstances  to  lay  the  first  stone  of  Seleucia,  not  at 
the  hour  indicated  by  the  astrologers,  but  at  a  moment 
which,  although  he  did  not  know  it,  was  precisely  the 
most  auspicious  that  he  could  have  chosen.  The  priests 
accordingly  recognised  the  hand  of  the  gods,  and  frankly 
informed  the  prince  of  this  manifest  mark  of  Divine  favour. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Emperor  Tiberius 
himself  studied  Chaldean  astrology  during  his  stay  in 
the  island  of  Rhodes.  His  teacher  was  Thrasyllus, 
of  whose  learning  and  skill  in  this  branch  of  science 
Tiberius  convinced  himself  by  finding  that  his  master 
did  not  hesitate  to  foretell  the  prince's  own  death.  The 
most  remarkable  instance  on  record  in  which  Tiberius 
made  use  of  his  knowledge  of  the  stars  is  his  prediction 
of  the  fate  of  Galba,  then  consul :  "  Thou  too,  Galba," 
said  the  princely  fortune-teller,  "  wilt  some  day  taste  of 
the  imperial  power."  This  was  understood  to  be  a 
reference  to  the  few  months'  reign  during  which  Galba, 
after  the  death  of  Nero,  governed  the  Roman  Empire. 

The  Bab}rlonian  astrologers  retained  their  influence 
in  the  Roman  world  until  they  were  discountenanced  by 
the  Christian  Church.  Saint  Ephraim,  in  the  fourth 
century,  wrote  ten  hymns  against  the  Chaldseans.  The 


264  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

doctrines  of  the  latter  were  handed  on  to  the  mediaeval 
astrologers  of  Europe.  In  the  East  astrology  has 
remained  in  force  to  the  present  century,  and  many 
modern  travellers  have  remarked  traces  of  its  existence. 
Shah  Abbas,  who  has  already  been  mentioned  once  or 
twice,  actually  abdicated  his  throne  at  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century  in  obedience  to  the  predictions 
of  star-gazers ;  but  then  we  must  remember  that  our 
own  Charles  I.,  the  contemporary  of  the  great  Persian, 
also  consulted  the  famous  astrologer  Lilly.  When 
Claudius  James  Eich,  the  first  systematic  explorer  of  the 
ruins  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  visited  Suleimanieh,  the 
capital  of  Kurdistan,  in  1820,  he  was  requested  by  the 
Pasha  to  put  off  his  entry  into  the  city  for  a  day  or 
two,  and  then  to  pass  through  the  gate  exactly  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  in  order  that  the  stars  might  be 
favourable  to  his  presence. 

The  cuneiform  inscriptions  have,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  furnished  us  with  some  of  the  documents 
composed  or  studied  by  the  ancient  star-gazers  on  the 
plains  of  Chaldsea.  They  afford  a  fresh  proof  of  the 
great  influence  which  astrology  exercised  over  Babylonian 
life.  The}'  fully  illustrate  the  words  of  Isaiah  when  he 
shows  how  all  the  knowledge  of  the  stars  claimed  by 
the  priests  and  philosophers  of  Babylon  did  not  enable 
them  to  foresee  the  misfortunes  of  their  own  country, 
or  to  save  it  from  overthrow. 

"  Thou  hast  trusted  in  thy  wickedness.  .  .  .  Thy  wisdom  and 
thy  knowledge,  it  hath  perverted  thee ;  and  thou  hast  said  in  thy 
heart :  I  am,  and  none  else  beside  me. 


THE    STAR-GAZERS    OF   BABYLON.  265 

"  Therefore  shall  evil  come  upon  thee  :  thou  shalt  not  know 
from  whence  it  riseth ;  and  mischief  shall  fall  upon  thee :  thou  slialt 
not  be  able  to  put  it  off;  and  desolation  shall  come  upon  thee  suddenly, 
which  thou  shalt  not  know. 

"  Stand,  now,  with  thine  enchantments,  and  with  the  multitude 
of  thy  sorceries,  wherein  thou  hast  laboured  from  thy  youth ;  if  so 
be  thou  shalt  be  able  to  profit,  if  so  be  thou  mayest  prevail. 

"  Thou  art  wearied  in  the  multitude  of  thy  counsels.  Let  now 
the  astrologers,  the  star-gazers,  the  monthly  prognosticators  stand 
up,  and  save  thee  from  those  things  that  shall  come  upon  thee. 

"  Behold,  they  shall  be  as  stubble  ;  the  fire  shall  burn  them ; 
they  shall  not  deliver  themselves  from  the  power  of  the  flames." 

We  learn  from  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  that  the 
Babylonians  possessed  a  great  astrological  work,  con- 
sisting of  seventy  clay  tablets.  This  was  said  to  have 
been  composed  in  the  time  of  Sargon,  king  of  Agane 
and  Bab}don,  and  father  of  Naram-Sin,  to  whom,  as  we 
have. already  seen,  the  Babylonian  chronologists  assigned 
an  almost  incredibly  remote  date.  At  least,  this  fact 
illustrates  the  antiquity  of  the  observations  of  the  stars 
recorded  by  the  Chaldseans.  One  of  the  tablets  shows 
which  months  are  lucky  and  which  unlucky  for  various 
actions  in  war  ;  it  must  have  been  to  such  documents 
as  this  that  the  prophet  Isaiah  alludes  in  the  words 
quoted  above  which  speak  of  the  "  monthly  prognosti- 
cators." Many  tablets,  written  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
unintelligible  to  the  uninitiated,  refer  to  all  sorts  of 
events  which  follow,  or  are  supposed  to  follow,  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  planets  in  certain  positions.  Some  of 
the  tablets  contain  horoscopes,  and  declare  the  fate  of 
a  person  born  under  such  and  such  aspects  of  the 
stars.  Other  documents  speak  of  eclipses  of  the 


266  NEW   LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

moon,  and   relate    the    misfortunes    which  follow  such 
phenomena. 

These  documents  of  which  we  speak  are  all  astro- 
logical; they  refer  to  the  influences  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  on  human  life.  But  through  the  constant  study 
of  the  moon  and  stars  for  the  purpose  of  discovering 
their  terrestrial  effects,  the  Chaldseans  acquired  a  very 
considerable  knowledge  of  the  movements  of  these  orbs. 
Through  studying  astrology,  they  became  astronomers. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Babylonians  began  to  observe 
the  stars  very  early,  and  that  they  possessed  records  of 
their  observations  reaching  back  to  a  very  remote  epoch. 
We  need  not  believe  that  these  records  literally  covered 
a  period  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  before  Christ, 
as  the  statements  of  many  ancient  writers  would  imply. 
But  at  least  we  may  feel  sure  that  the  Chaldacans  were 
the  first  inventors  of  astrology,  and  of  her  daughter, 
astronomy ;  and  we  may  safely  put  aside  the  claims  of 
the  Egyptians,  the  Rhodians,  or  the  Phoenicians  to  this 
honour.  Claudius  Ptolemy,  who  was  himself  born  at 
Alexandria  in  the  second  century  of  our  era,  used  Baby- 
lonian authorities  for  the  earlier  astronomical  obser- 
vations which  he  records,  and  he  dates  them  by  the  era 
of  Nabonassar,  king  of  Babylon  in  B.C.  747.  Three 
eclipses  of  the  moon  are  described  by  Ptolemy  from 
Babylonian  sources  :  one  which  took  place  in  the  second 
year  of  Merodach-Baladan  (B.C.  719),  another  which 
occurred  under  Nabopolassar  (B.C.  620),  and  a  third 
which  happened  in  the  seventh  year  of  Cambyses,  the 
of  Cyrus  (B.Q,  5 $8,  July  16th),  The  Original  record 


THE   STAE-GAZERS    OF   BABYLON.  267 

of  this  last  eclipse  has  recently  been  discovered  on  a 
clay  tablet,  published  by  Father  Strassmaier,  S.J. 
Ptolemy  says  : — 

"  In  the  seventh  year  of  Cambyses,  which  is  the  two  hundred  and 
twenty-fifth  year  of  Nabonassar,  in  the  Egyptian  month  of  Phamenoth, 
in  the  night  of  the  seventeenth-eighteenth,  one  hour  before  midnight, 
according  to  the  hour  of  Babylon,  the  moon  was  eclipsed,  beginning 
by  the  north,  to  the  half  of  her  diameter." 

In  the  cuneiform  text  inscribed  upon  the  clay  tablet 
from  Babylonia  we  read  : — 

"  In  the  year  seven  [of  Cambyses],  in  the  night  of  Tarnmuz  the 
fourteenth,  three  hours  and  one  third  after  nightfall,  there  was  an 
eclipse  of  the  moon.  At  its  maximum,  half  of  the  diameter  dis- 
appeared, beginning  by  the  north." 

The  two  statements  fully  agree,  and  Ptolemy,  or 
rather  Hipparchus,  from  whom  he  derived  his  know- 
ledge of  Babylonian  astronomy,  probably  borrowed  his 
record  of  this  eclipse  from  the  very  cuneiform  text,  a 
copy  of  which  is  now  in  the  British  Museum. 

Besides  the  movements  of  the  planets,  among  which 
the  Babylonians  included  the  sun  and  moon,  the  astro- 
nomers on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  are  said  by 
ancient  writers  to  have  studied  the  orbits  of  the  comets, 
and  to  have  been  able  to  predict  the  return  of  some  of 
them.  It  would  indeed  be  interesting  if  records  of 
comets  were  distinctly  to  be  discovered  among  the 
cuneiform  tablets. 

The  clearest  proofs  of  the  advance  made  by  the 
Babylonians  in  astronomical  science  have  lately  been 
found  by  Fathers  Strassraaier  and  Epping.  The 


268  NEW  LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

documents  in  which  the  records  that  these  scholars 
have  given  to  the  world  appear  are  of  a  late  epoch  ;  they 
are  the  fruit  of  the  last  days  of  Babylonian  civilization, 
before  it  finally  sank  under  the  barbarism  of  the  Parthian 
dynasty.  The  texts  bear  the  date  of  the  first  centuries 
of  Parthian  rule,  and,  among  other  results,  have  fixed 
the  chronology  of  the  period  to  which  they  belong  with 
a  certainty  not  realised  in  the  case  of  any  other  pre- 
Christian  times.  This  is  because  they  generally  give 
two  dates  :  one  according  to  the  era  of  Seleucus  (B.C.  310), 
and  the  other  according  to  the  era  of  Arsaces  (B.C.  246). 
It  had  already  been  observed  that  there  was  a  slight 
difference  between  the  reckoning  of  the  Chaldeans  and 
the  Syrians  from  the  era  of  Seleucus. 

The  texts  lately  published  and  explained  by  Fathers 
Epping  and  Strassmaier  consist  chiefly  of  tables  drawn 
up  to  record  the  phases  of  the  moon  or  the  movements 
of  the  planets  with  much  exactness.  The  Babylonian 
star-gazers  had  learnt  to  predict  the  moment  of  the 
appearance  of  the  new  moon;  they  had  observed  the 
heavens  with  sufficient  care  to  be  able  to  foretell  the 
courses  of  the  planets  through  the  constellations,  and 
their  position  in  relation  to  certain  fixed  stars.  Much, 
however,  of  the  work  of  Fathers  Epping  and  Strassmaier 
is  intelligible  only  to  students  of  astronomy,  who  may 
be  referred  to  the  book  written  by  these  authors  under  the 
title  "  Astronomisches  am  Babylon,"  and  to  their  articles 
in  certain  periodical  publications.  The  names  which 
the  Babylonians  gave  to  the  planets  have  been  deter- 
mined. There  is  one  name  occasionally  given  by  the 


THE    STAR-GAZERS    OF   BABYLON.  269 

Chaldsean  astronomers  to  the  planet  Saturn,  which  also 
appears  in  the  Bible.  This  designation  is  that  of 
Kaimanu  or  Kaivanu,  which  is  identical  with  the  word 
Kiun,  or  Chiun.  The  prophet  Amos  says  : — 

"  Have  ye  offered  unto  me  sacrifices  and  offerings  in  the  wilder- 
ness forty  years,  O  house  of  Israel  1 

"But  ye  have  borne  the  tabernacle  of  your  Moloch  and  Chiun 
your  images,  the  star  of  your  god,  which  ye  made  to  yourselves. 

"  Therefore  will  I  cause  you  to  go  into  captivity  beyond  Da- 
mascus, saith  the  Lord,  whose  name  is  The  God  of  hosts." 

Besides  the  names  of  the  planets,  the  names  of  a 
few  of  the  fixed  stars  among  the  Babylonians  have  been 
discovered ;  and  some  of  these  clearly  show  whence 
later  astronomers  derived  the  appellations  of  these 
bodies.  For  instance,  Regulus  was  called  The  King 
on  the  plains  of  Chalda3a  many  centuries  before  the 
science  of  the  stars  penetrated  into  the  West.  Alde- 
baran,  in  the  constellation  Taurus,  is  called  the  Ox. 
It  has  long  been  known  or  suspected  that  the  Baby- 
lonians first  distinguished  the  signs  of  the  zodiac ;  and 
the  recent  researches  have  discovered  the  names  of  all 
of  these  in  the  astronomical  documents.  Some  of 
these  designations,  at  least,  are  identical  with  those 
that  were  given  in  later  times  and  have  come  down 
to  us :  for  example,  the  Scorpion,  the  Fishes,  the 
Twins,  and  the  Goat.  The  representations  of  the 
signs  of  the  zodiac  are  to  be  seen  carved  on  certain 
Babylonian  monuments,  notably  in  the  case  of  the 
boundary-stones  which  were  set  up  to  mark  the  limit  of 
a  landed  estate,  and  contain  engraved  upon  them  the 


270  NEW   LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

deed  of  sale,  or  of  gift,  surmounted  by  certain  grotesque 
figures,  which  appear  to  indicate  the  aspect  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  under  which  the  transaction  was  con- 
cluded. The  Babylonian  star-gazers  were,  of  course, 
consulted  as  to  the  lucky  moment  for  conveying  land, 
as  well  as  in  most  of  the  other  important  operations  of 
life. 

Many  of  the  Babylonian  texts  which  we  are  now 
considering  were  evidently  drawn  up  for  the  purpose  of 
composing  an  astronomical  calendar  which  should  pre- 
dict the  positions  of  the  planets  for  every  day.  As  it 
was  already  known  from  ancient  authors,  the  Chaldaian 
astrologers  named  the  seven  planets,  including  the  sun 
and  moon,  the  "interpreters,"  because  by  their  position 
in  relation  to  the  other  stars  they  pointed  out  the 
destinies  of  man.  But  although  the  object  of  these 
ancient  sages  was  not  truly  scientific,  their  observations 
attained  to  such  exactness  that  they  succeeded  in 
founding  the  science  of  astronomy  out  of  the  materials 
which  they  collected  for  a  less  enlightened  purpose. 

For  greater  facility  in  observing  the  sky,  it  is  pro- 
bable that  the  Chaldeans  made  use  of  the  tall  structures 
which  they  erected  to  serve  also  as  the  temples  of  their 
gods,  who  were  often  personifications  of  the  heavenly 
bodies.  Perhaps  it  was  on  this  account  that  they  first 
began  to  build  the  "  towers  whose  top  should  reach  unto 
heaven."  There  were  probably  many  such  primitive 
observatories  scattered  over  the  plains  of  the  Lower 
Euphrates  and  Tigris.  We  are  told  that  there  were 
several  schools  of  astrologers,  whose  doctrines  did  not 


THE   STAR-GAZERS    OF   BABYLON. 


271 


always  agree  with  one  another;  the  most  famous  of 
these  learned  bodies  had  their  seats  respectively  at 
Sippara,  Erech,  and  Borsippa.  Now,  it  was  from  the 
ruins  of  the  first  of  these  ancient  cities,  now  called 
Abu  Habba,  that  most  of  the  astrological  and  astrono- 

7  O 


RESTORATION    OP   ASSYRIAN    OR    BABYLONIAN    TOWER   IN    STAGEa 

mical  tablets  have  recently  been  brought  to  Europe  ; 
the  documents  would  seem,  therefore,  to  have  formed 
part  of  the  scientific  archives  of  Sippara.  The  Hebrew 
name  of  this  famous  city  on  the  canal  Narragas  was 
Sepharvaim,  as  will  at  once  be  remembered,  whence 
the  Assyrian  king,  Sargon,  deported  some  of  the  in- 
habitants to  people  the  newly  vanquished  country  of 


272  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

Samaria ;  and  the  antiquity  of  this  city  was  so  great 
that  it  was  believed  to  have  existed  before  the  flood, 
and  to  have  contained  an  ancient  library,  perhaps  partly 
composed  of  astronomical  records,  dating  from  times 
anterior  to  that  catastrophe.  The  principal  temple  at 
Sippara  was  the  celebrated  sanctuary  of  the  sun-god, 
one  of  the  wealthiest  foundations  of  Babylonia,  as  we 
may  conjecture  from  the  numerous  documents  written  in 
the  cuneiform  character  referring  to  the  property  of 
this  shrine,  which  the  kings  of  the  country,  without 
doubt,  had  endowed  as  richly  as  the  great  temple  of 
Bit-Saggil  in  Babylon.  Attached  to  this  temple  there 
must  have  been  a  body  of  priests  devoted  to  the  study 
of  the  stars.  A  high  tower,  built  in  stages,  and  ascended 
by  a  staircase  running  round  the  outside,  no  doubt 
formed  the  observatory  of  these  sages  of  Sippara. 

The  third  of  the  astrological  schools  of  Babylonia  was 
that  seated  at  Borsippa,  the  suburb  of  ancient  Babylon, 
which  M.  Oppert  believes  to  have  formed  part  of  the 
vast  city,  almost  a  province,  as  Aristotle  said,  enclosed 
by  Nebuchadnezzar  within  two  lofty  walls.  The  close 
connection  of  Borsippa  with  the  capital  is  shown  by  the 
statement  in  the  Talmud  that  he  who  speaks  of  Bor- 
sippa is  referring  to  what  is  in  reality  a  part  of  Babylon. 
The  observatory  of  the  star-gazers  of  Borsippa  was  the 
vast  temple  of  Bit-Zida,  which  still  exists  in  the  form 
of  a  mountainous  ruin,  under  the  name  of  Birs-Nimroud. 
This  lofty  edifice  was,  according  to  the  ancient  tradition 
of  the  Jews,  identical  with  the  Great  Tower  of  Babylon, 
the  building  of  which  in  primeval  times  is  spoken  of  in 


THE    STAR-GAZERS    OF   BABYLON.  273 

the  Book  of  Genesis.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Benjamin  of  Tudela  and  the  Rabbi  Pethachiah  both 
visited  Birs-Nimroud,  under  the  impression  that  this 
was  actually  the  Tower  of  Babel.  Father  Strassmaier 


BIRS-NIMROUD  :    THE    RUINS    OF    BIT-ZIDA. 

has  lately  discovered  a  cuneiform  text  which  shows  the 
high  astronomical  significance  of  Bit-Zida  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Babylonians.  It  will  be  better  to  quote  his  own 
words.  The  text  is,  he  says — 

"  A  systematic  extract  out  of  an  old  treatise  composed  at  Borsippa 
on  astronomy  and  astrology,  written  by  Bel-akhe-iddin,  with  his  own 

S 


274  NEW   LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

hand,  at  Borsippa,  on  the  27th  Airu  (the  Jewish  lyyar)  in  the  year 
111  [of  Arsaces],  which  is  equivalent  to  the  year  174  [of  Seleticus], 
that  is  to  say,  B.C.  138. 

"Like  almost  all  astronomical  texts,  it  begins:  'According  to 
the  word  of  Bel  and  Beltis,'  and  proceeds  to  treat  of  the  significance 
of  the  summer  and  winter  solstices,  of  the  vernal  and  autumnal 
equinoxes,  of  the  connection  of  the  oracles  with  the  full  moon,  of  the 
influence  of  the  moon  and  of  the  heat  of  summer  on  the  diseases  of 
men,  and  of  the  incantations  by  which  sicknesses  are  healed,  of  the 
various  sacrifices  in  spring  and  autumn,  and  of  the  significance  of  the 
heliacal  rising  and  setting  of  Sirius  and  of  the  star  su-gi.  In  con- 
nection with  these  heavenly  phenomena  stand  the  different  festivals : 
the  mourning  for  Tammuz  at  midsummer,  the  lamentation  over  the 
receding  sun,  the  mourning  in  winter  for  the  disappearance  of  vege- 
tation, the  feast  of  Merodach  at  the  reappearance  of  vegetation  in 
spring,  the  various  ceremonies  in  public  worship  in  which  healing 
plants,  amulets,  and  different  kinds  of  wood  and  of  corn  play  an 
important  part.  Here  we  also  find  tabulated  the  forecasts  from  the 
different  sacred  birds  which  were  kept  in  the  temples.  A  complete 
explanation  of  the  text  requires  a  more  thorough  study,  but  we  here 
see  for  the  first  time  the  peculiarly  astronomical  significance  of  the 
two  chief  temples  of  Babylon,  Bit-Saggil  and  Bit-Zida,  since  heavenly 
phenomena,  such  as  eclipses,  the  revolutions  and  the  courses  of  the 
planets,  are  described  as  'daughters  of  Bit-Saggil,'  which  at  mid- 
summer go  in  procession  to  Bit-Zida,  the  '  House  of  the  Night,'  in 
order  to  lengthen  the  nights  ;  while  conversely,  the  '  Daughters  of 
Bit-Zida '  go  out  to  Bit-Saggil  to  lengthen  the  days.  Whether  the 
different  orientation  of  the  Babylonian  temples  is  connected  with 
this,  perhaps  those  Assyriologists  can  tell  us  who  have  visited  Baby- 
lon. The  ruins  of  Babel,  or  Mujelibah,  are  said  to  face  the  cardinal 
points  with  their  sides,  not  with  their  corners  ;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
the  ruins  of  Birs-Nimroud  turn  their  corners  to  the  four  quarters  of 
the  heavens." 

The  Babylonians  must  have  been  the  first  to  draw 
up  a  calendar,  and  not  only  this,  but  the  first  to  mark 
the  divisions  of  time  in  a  systematic  manner.  The 
Greeks  acknowledged  that  the  twelve  divisions  of  the 


THE    STAR-GAZERS   OF   BABYLON.  275 

day  were  the  invention  of  the  natives  of  Chaldtea,  and 
that  the  first  instrument  for  recording  the  advance  of 
the  sun  through  the  sky,  and  so  dividing  the  time  into 
equal  sections — that  is  to  say,  the  concave  sun-dial  with 
its  index — was  introduced  into  the  West  from  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates.  The  system  of  intercalary  months 
kept  the  Babylonian  year  almost  in  accordance  with  the 
progress  of  the  sun.  It  is  probable  that  the  division  of 
the  lunar  month  into  periods  of  seven  days  also  origi- 
nated in  Babylonia,  where  there  are  indications  that  a 
sabbath,  or  day  of  rest,  was  observed;  but  these  are 
points  which  require  further  investigation.  The  divi- 
sion of  the  hour  into  sixty  minutes  belongs  to  the 
sexagesimal  system  of  notation  which  was  peculiar  tc 
the  Babylonians. 

An  indirect  result  of  the  systematic  observation  of 
the  stars  by  the  Babylonians  was  the  establishment  of 
an  exact  chronology  among  them.  In  the  first  place, 
the  astrologers  were  obliged  to  date  their  observations 
that  they  might  be  of  use  to  their  successors ;  and  in 
the  second  place,  one  of  their  principal  objects  was  to 
connect  such  or  such  a  phenomenon  among  the  heavenly 
bodies  with  such  or  such  an  event  in  the  life  of  a  king. 
The  result  was  that  gradually  lists  of  kings  were  drawn 
up,  with  the  length  of  their  reign  and  the  principal 
events  which  happened  in  such  and  such  years.  Berosus, 
in  the  third  century  before  our  era,  seems  to  have  had 
access  to  a  complete  series  of  chronological  records  from 
the  very  beginning  of  history ;  they  were,  it  may  be 
presumed,  those  preserved  among  the  archives  of  hir 
s  2 


276  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

own  Temple  of  Bel-Merodach :  the  great  structure  named 
Bit-Saggil.  Modern  researches  have  already  succeeded 
in  discovering  fragments  of  such  records.  We  have 
already  considered  the  Assyrian  lists  of  eponyms,  first 
made  known  by  George  Smith.  Within  the  last  ten 
years  lists  of  Babylonian  kings  have  been  brought  to 
light.  These  lists  give  the  names  of  the  kings  in 
proper  order,  and  add  the  number  of  years  during  which 
each  monarch  reigned.  The  Alexandrian  astronomer 
Ptolemy,  or  rather  Hipparchus,  from  whom  the  former 
derived  his  knowledge,  must  have  had  access  to  a  similar 
list,  from  which  the  famous  Ptolemaic  canon  was  drawn 
up.  It  is  now  possible  to  compare  Ptolemy's  list  of 
Babylonian  kings  from  the  time  of  Nabonassar  (B.C. 
747)  downwards  with  the  clay  tablets  on  which  it  must 
originally  have  I  een  based ;  and  it  is  satisfactory  to  be 
able  to  convince  ourselves  of  the  absolute  authenticity 
of  a  document  which  has  until  the  present  day  been  of 
such  incalculable  value  to  chronologists. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

LEGAL  DEEDS  OF  THE  BABYLONIANS. 

THE  prophet  Jeremiah  describes  for  us  the  form  in 
which  deeds  of  sale  were  drawn  up  in  his  time.  He 
says : — 

"  Fields  shall  be  bought  in  this  land,  whereof  ye  say,  It  is  deso- 
late without  man  or  beast;  it  is  given  into  the  hand  of  the  Chaldeans. 

"  Men  shall  buy  fields  for  money,  and  subscribe  evidences,  arid 
seal  them,  and  take  witnesses  in  the  land  of  Benjamin,  and  in  the 
places  about  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  cities  of  Judah,  and  in  the  cities 
of  the  mountains,  and  in  the  cities  of  the  valley,  and  in  the  cities  of 
the  south :  for  I  will  cause  their  captivity  to  return,  saith  the  Lord." 

Many  such  deeds  of  sale  have  been  discovered  in 
recent  times,  and  are  now  stored  up  in  our  museums. 
They  are,  of  course,  written  upon  the  ordinary  writing 
material  of  the  Babylonians :  that  is  to  say,  upon  clay 
tablets,  such  as  the  prophet  Ezekiel  speaks  of : — 

"  Thou  also,  son  of  man,  take  thee  a  tile,  and  lay  it  before  thee, 
and  pourtray  upon  it  the  city,  even  Jerusalem." 

Such  plans  of  towns  and  buildings  as  this  which 
was  drawn  upon  a  clay  tablet  by  the  prophet  Ezekiel, 
have  been  found  among  the  cuneiform  inscriptions. 
Even  as  early  as  the  time  of  Grudea,  governor  of  Lagash, 
the  architects  traced  their  plans  upon  tablets,  and  this 


278  NEW   LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

personage  himself  is  represented  in  a  statue  at  tlie 
Louvre,  already  alluded  to,  holding  such  a  design  of  a 
palace  or  fort  upon  his  knees,  with  the  stylus  which 
served  as  his  instrument  to  mark  it  out  upon  the  clay. 
Plans  of  the  city  of  Babylon  itself,  and  of  other  towns 
or  buildings,  have  also  been  found.  When  Ezekiel 
wrote,  he  was  a  captive  in  Babylonia,  and  naturally 
followed  the  custom  of  the  country. 

Of  the  deeds  of  sale  of  this  period,  similar  in  form 
to  those  described  by  Jeremiah,  we  find  such  examples 
as  the  following,  of  the  time  of  Evil-Merodach,  the  son 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  successor  of  the  latter  upon  the 
throne  of  Babylon  : — 

"  A  piece  of  land,  consisting  of  five  measures  of  corn-land,  a  field, 
a  meadow,  and  a  palm-garden,  adjoining  the  corn-field  of  Itri-Saktum, 
in  front  of  the  gate  of  the  Sun-god,  in  the  suburbs  of  Babylon.  Its 
measurements  are  : 

"  336§  cubits  on  the  upper  western  side,  adjoining  the  property  of 
Zilla,  son  of  Nur-Sin  ; 

"  339  cubits  on  the  lower  eastern  side,  adjoining  the  property  of 
Eimut-Bel,  son  of  Bel-uballit,  son  of  Sin-shadunu  ; 

"  128  cubits,  20  fingers  on  the  upper  northern  side,  adjoining  the 
road 

"  126  cubits,  20  fingers  on  the  lower  southern  side,  adjoining  the 
property  of  Bimut,  son  of  Nadin,  son  of  Sin-kudurnu. 

"  Total :  5  measures  of  corn-land  and  1  measure  of  pasture-land. 

"  During  the  years  from  the  32nd  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of 
Babylon,  Marduk-akhi-usur,  son  of  Marduk-ibni,  the  king's  officer, 
has  held  the  land  as  pledge  for  three  manehs  of  silver,  at  the  hands 
of  Ramman-nasir,  son  of  Apia,  son  of  the  priest  of  Rimmon.  After- 
wards, in  the  second  year  of  Evil-Merodach,  king  of  Babylon, 
Marduk-akhi-usur,  son  of  Marduk-ibni,  the  king's  officer,  has  declared 
and  reckoned  the  full  value  of  the  land  as  3^  manehs,  6  shekels  of 
pure  silver,  and  has  deposited  5£  shekels  of  silver  in  addition.  Thg 


LEGAL  DEEDS  OF  THE  BABYLONIANS.      279 

total  price,  3f  manehs,  1  shekel,  3  ud  of  pure  silver.  Ramman-nasir, 
son  of  Apia,  son  of  the  priest  of  Rimmon,  has  received  the  full  price 
of  the  land  in  silver,  at  the  hands  of  Marduk-akhi-usur,  son  of 
Marduk-ibni,  the  king's  officer. 

"  In  the  presence  of  the  Royal  Scribes,  in  the  city  of  Ipkida,  the 
tablet  has  been  sealed,  and  Marduk-akhi-usur  has  paid  the  price. 

"  Witnesses  :  Bel-iddin,  son  of  Sitillu,  son  of  the  chief  architect ; 
Nabu  etir-napshati,  son  of  Shamash-nasir,  son  of  Nur-Sin  ;  Nabu- 
iddin,  son  of  Mushallim,  son  of  the  sword-bearer  ;  Mushezib  Marduk, 
son  of  Nabu-pal-iddin,  son  of  Dabibi 

"  Besides  the  male  witnesses  of  the  tablet  of  Marduk-akhi-usur, 
Saggil-namrat,  daughter  of  Ramman-nasir,  and  wife  of  Uballit- 
Marduk,  sat  as  witness. 

"  Ramman-takul,  son  of  Ramman-nasir,  son  of  the  priest  of 
Rimmon,  has  received  three  shekels  of  stamped  (?)  silver  at  the 
hands  of  Marduk-akhi-usur,  and  sat  together  with  the  witnesses 

"  Scribe  :  Nabu-shar-usur,  son  of  Zirutu,  son  of  Marduk-shakin- 
pushu. 

"  Babylon,  month  of  Tammuz,  1 5th  day,  2nd  year  of  Evil- 
Merodach,  king  of  Babylon. 

"  Nail-mark  of  Ramman-nasir,  son  of  Apia,  son  of  the  Priest  of 
Rimmon,  in  place  of  his  seal." 

We  here  see  the  legal  process  described  by  Jeremiah 
in  the  words  quoted  above,  and  also  in  another  passage 
where  the  prophet  says  : — 

"  I  bought  the  field  of  Hanameel  my  uncle's  son,  that  was  in 
Anathoth,  and  weighed  him  the  money,  even  seventeen  skekels  of 
silver. 

"  And  I  subscribed  the  evidence,  and  sealed  it,  and  took  witnesses, 
and  weighed  him  the  money  in  the  balances. 

"  So  I  took  the  evidence  of  the  purchase,  both  that  which  was 
sealed  according  to  the  law  and  custom,  and  that  which  was  open  : 

"  And  I  gave  the  evidence  of  the  purchase  unto  Baruch  the  son 
of  Neriah,  the  son  of  Maaseiah,  in  the  sight  of  Hanameel  mine 
uncle's  sen,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  witnesses  that  subscribed  the 
book  of  the  purchase,  before  all  the  Jews  that  sat  in  the  cou,rt  of  the. 


280  NEW  LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

"And  I  charged  Barucli  before  them,  saying, 

"Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel;  Take  these 
evidences,  this  evidence  of  the  purchase,  both  which  is  sealed,  and 
this  evidence  which  is  open;  and  put  them  in  an  earthen  vessel,  that 
they  may  continue  many  days." 

The  two  copies  of  the  tablet,  the  one  "  sealed  "  and 
the  other  open,  would  seem  to  refer  to  the  Babylonian 
habit  of  enclosing  some  of  the  contract-tablets  in  an 
outer  case  of  clay,  which  then  received  impressions  of 
the  cylindrical  seals  of  the  judges,  and  was  marked  with 
a  few  words,  to  indicate  the  nature  of  the  document 
contained  within.  A  large  number  of  such  contracts 
in  cases  are  now  contained  in  the  British  Museum. 
The  contract  cannot  be  read  until  the  outer  covering  is 
broken.  Examples  have  also  been  found  of  the  "earthen 
vessels  "  in  which  legal  deeds  were  sometimes  preserved. 
The  most  remarkable  of  these  is  the  large  clay  coffer 
which  contained  the  finely-carved  stone  tablet  from  the 
Temple  of  the  Sun-god  at  Sippara. 

The  system  of  receiving  pledges  would  seem  to  have 
been  identical  among  the  Babylonians  and  among  the 
Israelites.  The  latter  were  required  by  their  law  to 
show  especial  consideration  for  poor  debtors  in  this 
matter : — 

"  When  thou  dost  lend  thy  brother  anything,  thou  shalt  not  go 
into  his  house  to  fetch  his  pledge. 

"  Thou  shalt  stand  abroad,  and  the  man  to  whom  thou  dost  lend 
shall  bring  out  the  pledge  abroad  unto  thee. 

"  And  if  the  man  be  poor,  thou  shalt  not  sleep  with  his  pledge. 

"  In  any  case,  thou  shalt  deliver  him  the  pledge  again  when  the 
sun  goeth  down,  that  he  may  sleep  in  his  own  raiment,  and  bless 


LEGAL    DEEDS    OF    THE    BABYLONIANS.  281 

thee ;    and   it    shall    be    righteousness     unto  thee  before   the  Lord 
thy  God." 

The  Babylonian  contract  quoted  above  is  of  the 
reign  of  Evil-Merodach.  This  is  a  king  of  whom  we 
know  very  little.  The  Canon  of  Ptolemy  gives  his 
name  and  the  length  of  his  reign  :  namely,  two  years 
— a  statement  entirely  confirmed  by  the  Babylonian 
contracts,  which  are  all  carefully  dated,  with  the  year, 
the  month,  and  the  day  of  the  month.  The  historian 
Berosus  gave  an  account  of  Evil-Merodach  in  his 
Greek  history  of  Babylonia,  but,  as  we  only  know  the 
latter  through  the  extracts  of  Greek  writers,  not  one 
of  whom  seems  to  have  studied  the  work  at  first  hand, 
we  know  little  of  what  the  learned  Chaldaean  priest  may 
have  said  ;  we  only  hear  from  Josephus  that  the 
monarch  was  a  son  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  that  he  reigned 
lawlessly,  and  that  finally  he  was  assassinated  by  his 
brother-in-law,  Neriglissar,  who  seized  upon  the  throne. 
The  Bible,  however,  has  preserved  for  us  an  incident 
in  the  reign  of  Evil-Merodach,  which  proves  that  this 
prince  had  some  generosity  of  character ;  it  is  related 
both  by  Jeremiah  and  by  the  author  of  the  Second  Book 
of  Kings. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  seven  and  thirtieth  year  of  the 
captivity  of  Jehoiachin  king  of  Judah,  in  the  twelfth  month,  on  the 
five  and  twentieth  day  of  the  month,  that  Evil-Merodach  king  of 
Babylon  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign  lifted  up  the  head  of 
Jehoiachin  king  of  Judah,  and  brought  him  forth  out  of  prison, 

"  And  spake  kindly  unto  him,  and  set  his  throne  above  the  throne 
of  the  kings  that  were  with  him  in  Babylon, 

"  And  changed  his  prison  garments  :  and  he  did  continually  eat 
bread  before  him  all  the  days  of  his  life. 


282  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"And  for  his  diet,  there  was  a  continual  diet  given  him  of  the  king 
of  Babylon,  every  day  a  portion  until  the  day  of  his  death,  all  the 
days  of  his  life." 

One  of  the  remarkable  results  of  the  immense  collec- 
tion of  Babylonian  contracts  that  have  been  brought 
to  England  is  the  important  aid  they  lend  to  history 
by  the  absolutely  authentic  chronological  data  which 
they  afford.  It  is  only  recently  that  the  great  body 
of  these  documents  has  been  made  available  to  students 
through  the  publication  of  a  full  series  of  contracts, 
arranged  according  to  their  dates,  by  Father  Strassmaier. 
In  contemplating  this  work,  the  labours  on  Babylonian 
astronomy  and  other  results  of  research  among  the  cunei- 
form inscriptions,  we  are  reminded  of  the  words  of  Lord 
Bacon  in  the  seventeenth  century,  only  sixty-six  years 
after  the  foundation  of  the  Society,  that  "  the  Jesuits, 
partly  in  themselves  and  partly  by  the  emulation  and 
provocation  of  their  example,  have  much  quickened  and 
strengthened  the  state  of  learning."  The  chronological 
results,  then,  of  the  Babylonian  contracts  have  con- 
firmed in  a  remarkable  manner  the  dates  given  by  the 
Alexandrian  astronomer  Ptolemy,  in  his  Canon.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  Ptolemaic  Canon  gives  the 
number  of  years  during  which  each  Babylonian  king 
reigned,  from  Nabonassar  (B.C.  747)  to  Nabonidus ; 
then  the  length  of  the  rule  of  the  Persian  kings  who 
had  conquered  Babylon,  from  Cyrus  to  Darius  Codo- 
manus  ;  then  the  dates  of  Alexander,  his  half-brother, 
his  son,  and  his  successors  in  the  kingdom  of  Egypt, 
from  Ptolemy  Lagi  to  Cleopatra;  lastly,  of  the  Roman 


LEGAL    DEEDS    OF    THE    BABYLONIANS.  253 

emperors  to  Antoninus  Pius.  The  latter  part  of  his 
chronology  had  long  ago  been  confirmed  from  manifold 
sources;  the  first  portion  has,  as  we  have  seen,  recently 
been  verified  by  the  newly-discovered  lists  of  Babylonian 
kings  on  clay  tablets.  That  part,  however,  which 
refers  to  the  Babylonian  monarchs  from  Nabopolassar 
to  Nabonidus  has  most  remarkably  been  supported  by 
the  recently  published  contract  tablets,  all  carefully 
dated,  which  have  been  found  in  such  numbers  that 
there  is  one  for  almost  every  month  of  the  period  to 
which  reference  has  just  been  made,  and  often  many  for 
each  month. 

The  names  of  these  Babylonian  months  are,  of 
course,  the  same  which  were  borrowed  by  the  Jews 
after  the  'Babylonish  captivity,  and  which  we  find 
employed  in  those  books  of  the  Bible  that  were  written 
after  that  epoch  :  Nisan,  lyyar,  Si  van,  Tarn  muz,  Ab, 
Elul,  Tishri,  Marchesvan,  Chisleu,  Tebet,  Shebat, 
Adar. 

It  may  easily  be  understood  how  valuable  the 
chronological  results  of  the  contracts  are  for  periods  of 
which  we  have  but  little  other  information,  as,  for 
example,  for  the  reign  of  Evil-Merodach,  already  spoken 
of.  This  sovereign  was  succeeded  by  his  sister's 
husband,  Neriglissar,  who,  as  we  find  from  the  Canon 
of  Ptolemy  and  from  the  contracts,  reigned  for  nearly 
four  years.  The  name  Neriglissar  is  a  Greek  corruption 
of  the  Babylonian  Nergal-shar-usur,  which  appears  in 
the  Bible  as  Nergalsharezer,  the  appellation  of  two 
Babylonian  princes,  in  the  reign  of  Nebuchadnezzar : — 


284  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  And  in  the  eleventh  year  of  Zedekiah,  in  the  fourth  month, 
the  ninth  day  of  the  month,  the  city  [of  Jerusalem]  was  broken  up. 

"  And  all  the  princes  of  the  king  of  Babylon  came  in  and  sat 
in  the  middle  gate,  even  Nergal-sharezer,  Samgar-Nebo,  Sarsechim, 
Rab-saris,  Nergal-sharezer,  Rab-Mag,  with  all  the  residue  of  the 
princes  of  the  king  of  Babylon." 

It  seems  highly  probable  that  this  very  prince, 
whose  name  appears  first  in  the  list,  may  have  been  the 
same  who  married  Nebuchadnezzar's  daughter,  and 
finally  succeeded  Evil-Merodach  upon  the  throne  of 
the  kingdom.  The  name  means,  "  Nergal  defends 
the  king."  A  certain  Nergal-shar-usur,  son  of  Bel- 
shum-ishkun,  appears  constantly  in  the  deeds  of  the 
time  of  Evil-Merodach  and  Nebuchadnezzar  as  a  per- 
sonage of  great  importance  in  the  State  and  of  much 
wealth,  whose  pecuniary  transactions  are  always  carried 
on  by  means  of  intermediary  agents  ;  he  is  also  thought 
to  be  the  prince  who  afterwards,  through  an  act  of 
treachery  already  alluded  to,  became  king  of  Babylon. 
The  name  of  the  god  Nergal,  which  appears  as  an 
element  in  the  name  of  this  monarch,  will  be  remem- 
bered as  that  of  the  divinity  whose  worship  was 
introduced  into  Samaria  by  some  of  the  foreign 
colonists  brought  into  that  country  after  its  conquest 
by  Shalmaneser  and  Sargon,  kings  of  Assyria. 

"Every  nation  made  gods  of  their  own,  and  put  them  in  the 
houses  of  the  high  places,  which  the  Samaritans  had  made,  every 
nation  in  their  cities  wherein  they  dwelt. 

"  And  the  men  of  Babylon  made  Succoth-benoth,  and  the  men  of 
Cuth  made  Nergal,  and  the  men  of  Hamath  made  Ashima." 

Nergal  was  the  god  of  the  infernal  regions ;  he  was 


LEGAL   DEEDS    OF    THE    BABYLONIANS.  285 

a  sort  of  Pluto.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  documents 
found  with  the  letters  in  the  Babylonian  language  at 
Tell  el-Amarna  is  a  fragment  of  a  mythological  legend 
referring  to  Nergal  and  to  his  wife,  Eresh-kigal,  the 
Babylonian  Proserpine.  This  text  is  very  carefully 
spelt  out  in  phonetic  characters,  and  may  possibly  have 
served  as  a  reading-book  for  the  study  of  the  Baby- 
lonian language  among  some  members  of  the  Egyptian 
royal  family  or  court ;  or  perhaps  one  of  the  North 
Mesopotamian  princesses  who  were  sent  as  wives  to 
the  Pharaoh  brought  it  with  her  from  her  own  country, 
where  Babylonian  was  not  the  native  language,  but  was 
certainly  the  medium  of  literary  expression  and  of 
communication  with  other  parts  of  Western  Asia.  The 
text  in  question  is  the  first  to  show  us  the  true  pro- 
nunciation of  the  name  of  the  goddess  Eresh-kigal, 
which  has  hitherto  been  read  as  Nin-kigal.  Eresh-kigal 
is  her  Accadian  name ;  her  Assyrian  appellation  is 
Allatu.  It  will  be  remembered  that  this  same  goddess 
appears  as  ruler  of  the  infernal  regions  in  the  celebrated 
Assyrian  poem  known  as  "  The  Descent  of  Tshtar  into 
Hades,"  in  which  the  queen  of  the  dead  is  represented 
as  the  implacable  enemy  of  the  goddess  of  love,  whom 
she  strips  of  her  ornaments,  and  detains  in  the  depths 
of  hell  until  the  rest  of  the  gods  release  the  captive 
divinity.  In  the  legend  discovered  with  the  Tell  el- 
Amarna  tablets  the  Queen  of  Hades  is  described  as 
entering  the  realm  of  her  husband,  perhaps  for  the  first 
time,  for  she  was  most  u.ikindly  treated  at  first,  after 
she  had  passed  twice  seven  gates. 


286  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  '  Behold,  I  am  Allatu  ! '     They   seized  her ;  they  took   Eresh- 

kigal  into  the  midst  of  the  house They  were  about  to 

strike  her  head  against  the  ground.  '  Slay  me  not,  my  brother  ;  let 
me  speak  a  word  ! '  The  god  Nergal  listened  to  her  ;  he  put  forth 
his  hand  ;  he  wept  ;  he  embraced  her.  '  Be  thou  my  husbaucl  and 
I  will  be  thy  wife,  and  will  cause  thee  to  obtain  dominion  over  the 
wide  earth,  and  will  place  a  written  tablet  of  wisdom  in  thy  hand  ; 
thou  shalt  be  lord  and  I  will  be  lady.'  The  god  Nergal  listened  to 
her  words ;  he  embraced  her,  he  kissed  her,  and  wiped  away  her 
tears.  '  Whomsoever  thou  desirest  ...  I  will  slay.'  " 


After  the  deatli  of  Neriglissar,  or  Nergal-sharezer, 
his  son  became  king.  The  new  monarch  was  a  mere 
child,  named  Labashi-Marduk,  or,  in  the  much  corrupted 
form  given  by  Joseph  us,  Laborosoarchod.  In  Eusebius 
a  more  correct  form  is  preserved  :  namely,  Labassoar- 
ascus.  This  unfortunate  youth  is  said  by  Berosus 
to  have  given  proof  that  he  would  exhibit  bad  qualities 
as  a  ruler,  and  therefore  he  was  assassinated,  under 
circumstances  of  cruelty,  by  a  body  of  conspirators. 
The  length  of  his  reign  is  stated  by  Josephus,  quoting 
at  second  or  third  hand  from  Berosus,  to  have  been  nine 
months.  The  Canon  of  Ptolemy  does  not  give  his 
name,  because  for  the  astronomical  purposes  for  which 
this  list  was  drawn  up  it  was  useless  to  mention  reigns 
that  lasted  for  less  than  a  year ;  and  accordingly,  we 
do  not  find  Laborosoarchod  any  more  than  we  meet 
with  the  Roman  emperors  Galba,  Otho,  or  Vitellius, 
or,  at  an  earlier  epoch,  with  the  Pseudo-Smerdis,  who 
reigned  for  some  months  over  Persia.  The  Babylonian 
contracts,  however,  appear  to  indicate  that  the  reign  of 
the  youthful  son  of  Neriglissar  was  confined  to  the 


LEGAL    DEEDS    OF    THE    BABYLONIANS.  287 

short  space  of  two  months,  between  his  father's  death, 
in  the  month  of  Nisan,  and  the  accession  of  the  leader 
of  the  conspirators,  Nabonidus,  in  the  month  of  Sivan. 
The  seventeen  years'  reign  of  Nabonidus,  the  last  native 
king1  of  Babylon,  are  very  fully  represented  by  docu- 
ments bearing  the  date  of  nearly  every  month  during 
which  he  ruled. 

On  the  disappearance  of  the  native  dynasty,  the 
Babylonian  scribes  began  to  date  their  legal  documents 
by  the  year  of  the  Persian  kings,  whom  they  entitled 
"  king  of  Babylon  and  king  of  the  world."  Thus  we 
have  a  full  series  of  such  texts  for  the  reign  of  Cyrus, 
Cambyses,  and  Darius  Hystaspis.  Through  the 
chances  of  disco veiy,  rather  than  through  the  actual 
want  of  inscriptions,  probably  still  buried  beneath  the 
soil  of  Babylonia,  few  contracts  of  the  period  subsequent 
to  Darius  have  at  present  been  brought  to  Europe. 
There  is  a  small  number  known,  however,  of  the  time 
of  Xerxes :  one,  for  instance,  which  refers  to  some 
corn,  the  property  of  a  lady  named  Artim,  the  foster- 
mother  or  nurse  of  the  "king's  daughter,"  Ittakhshakh: 
a  name  possibly  corresponding  to  Atossa,  which  was 
the  appellation  of  the  mother  of  Xerxes,  and  may,  not 
improbably,  have  been  also  borne  by  his  daughter  or 
sister.  We  possess,  moreover,  a  few  contracts  of  the 
time  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus  ;  then  there  is  a  gap  in 
the  series ;  but  of  later  reigns  we  have  a  small  number 
belonging  respectively  to  the  times  of  Alexander ;  his 
half-brother,  Philip  Arrhidseusj  his  son,  Alexander  the 
Younger,  and  some  of  his  successors  on  the  throne  of 


288  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Syria  and  Babylonia :   Seleucus,  Antiochus,  Demetrius. 
Finally,  we  arrive  at  the  Parthian  period. 

Some  of  the  Babylonian  contracts  bear  names  of 
kings  who  are  at  present  represented  by  few  or  no  other 
monuments  ;  for  instance,  besides  Evil-Merodach  and 
Laborosoarchod,  Sin-shar-ishkun,  the  last  king  of 
Assyria,  called  by  Berosus  Saracus,  whose  name  appears 
in  the  following  document  :— 

"  30  talents  of  reeds,  the  property  of  the  Sun-god,  due  from 
Shamash-epush,  Bel-ibni,  and  Shamash-aplu.  .  .  .  They  shall 
pay  ...  as  interest.  In  the  month  of  Adar  they  shall  pay 
their  debt.  They  act  as  guarantee  for  one  another. 

"Witnesses:  Nabu-bel-shanati,  son  of  the  priest  of  Nana;  Ikisha, 
son  of  Rabu,  son  of  Addaru ;  .  son  of  the  Smith.  Scribe  : 

Kidini,  son  of  the  Smith. 

"  Sippara,  month  of  Sivan,  25th  day,  2nd  year  of  Sin-shar-ishkun, 
king  of  Assyria." 

The  predecessor  of  Saracus,  Ashur-etil-ili,  son  of 
Sardanapalus,  also  appears  in  some  contracts  recently 
discovered  during  the  American  excavations  at  Niffer, 
on  the  site  of  the  ancient  Babylonian  city  of  Nippuru. 

These  contracts  that  have  been  described  are  all  of 
comparatively  late  date  ;  but  there  actually  exist  a 
number  of  far  more  ancient  documents  of  the  same 
class.  The  British  Museum  possesses  a  large  number 
of  such  texts,  bearing  the  date  of  various  years  in  the 
reign  of  Khammurabi,  king  of  Babylon,  identified, 
although  without  certainty,  with  Amraphel,  king  of 
Shinar,  who,  in  company  with  Chedorlaomer,  king  of 
Elam,  fought  against  Abraham  in  the  land  of  Canaan. 
The  epoch  of  Khammurabi  must  be  set  about  B.C. 


LEGAL   DEEDS    OF    THE    BABYLONIANS,  289 

2200  ;  he  reigned,  as  Nabonidus  tells  us  in  an  inscrip- 
tion already  quoted,  seven  hundred  years  before  Burna- 
buryash,  some  of  whose  letters  are  found  among  the 
Tell  el-Amarna  tablets. 

Let  us  examine  some  of  the  contents  of  the  Baby- 
lonian law-deeds.  A  sale  of  land  has  already  been 
quoted,  drawn  up,  according  to  Jeremiah's  description, 
with  the  names  of  the  witnesses  and  the  impressions 
of  the  seals  of  the  judges.  The  seller  of  the  land, 
according  to  a  very  common  custom,  made  the 
impression  of  his  nail  in  the  damp  clay,  instead  of 
stamping  it  with  his  seal  ;  such  nail-marks  are  con- 
stantly seen  in  these  legal  deeds  on  the  edge  of  the 
tablet,  where  they  form  a  semicircular  indentation.  The 
names  of  women  rarely  appear  as  witnesses,  but  in  this 
case  there  is  one,  who  is  described  as  sitting  in  court, 
to  add  her  testimony  to  the  proceedings. 

The  Babylonians  measured  land  by  reeds  and  cubits, 
and  these  were  the  measures  used  by  the  Jews  at  the 
time  of  the  captivity.  Ezekiel  says  : — 

"  Behold  a  wall  on  the  outside  of  the  house  round  about,  and  in 
the  man's  hand  a  measuring  reed  of  six  cubits  long  by  the  cubit  and 
an  hand  breadth ;  so  he  measured  the  breadth  of  the  building  one 
reed,  and  the  height  one  reed." 

After  this,  Ezekiel  gives  all  the  measurements  of  the 
temple  and  of  its  court  in  reeds  and  cubits.  These  are 
the  same  measurements  that  we  find  in  the  Babylonian 
contracts :  only  in  the  latter  the  reed  is  equivalent  to 
seven  cubits.  The  following  document  refers  to  a  sale 
of  land : — 
T 


290  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  Four  reeds,  one  cubit,  eight  fingers  [of  land],  the  property  of 
Marduk-shakin-shum,  son  of  Marduk-shum-usur,  son  of  Shigua, 
worth  2|  manehs,  If  shekel  of  silver,  according  to  the  valuation; 
together  with  10  garments  and  2  reeds  6|  cubits  [of  land],  the 
property  of  Kurbanni-Marduk,  son  of  Sazutu,  son  of  Dakhar,  worth 
1§  maneh,  1\  shekels,  are  sold  to  Nergal-shar-usur,  son  of  Bel-shura- 
ishkun,  for  their  full  price  :  namely,  2f  manehs,  If  shekel  of  silver, 
to  Marduk-shakin-shum,  as  the  price  of  his  land,  and  1§  maneh, 
7i  shekels  of  silver,  to  Kurbanni-Marduk,  as  the  price  of  his  land. 
By  the  direction  of  Nergal  shai--usur,  the  money  has  been  paid  by 
Nabu-akhi-iddin,  son  of  Gula,  son  of  Egibi. 

"  Witnesses  :  Nabu-aplu-iddin,  son  of  Itti-Marduk-balatu,  son  of 
Shanashishu  ;  Bimut-Bel-ilani,  son  of  Nabu-kishir,  son  of  Zazakku; 
Nabu-belshunu,  son  of  Bel-akhi-irba,  son  of  Ukkai. 

"  Scribe  :   Damuk,  son  of  Rirnut-Bel,  son  of  the  Ashlaku. 

"Babylon,  month  of  Tebet,  9th  day,  1st  year  of  Evil-Merodach, 
King  of  Babylon." 

Many  of  these  legal  documents  contain  the  enumera- 
tion of  the  objects  given  as  dowries  on  the  occasion  of 
a  marriage,  and  are,  in  fact,  marriage  settlements. 
Money,  land,  slaves,  and  property  in  other  forms  were 
given  by  the  Babylonians,  with  their  daughters,  to 
their  sons-in-law,  as  we  see  in  the  following  case :  — 

"  Marduk-shar-usur,  son  of  Nabu-etir,  of  his  free  will  gives  5 
manehs  of  silver,  3  slaves,  30  sheep,  two  oxen,  and  the  rent  of  a 
house,  with  his  daughter,  Hibta,  as  dowry,  to  Nabu-bani-ziru,  son  of 
Bel-uballit,  son  of  Dannia.  Nabu-bani-ziru  has  received  the  dowry 
at  the  hands  of  Marduk-shar-usur. 

"  Witnesses  :  Kudur,  son  of  ...  son  of  Diki ;  Mushezib- 
Marduk,  son  of  Apia,  son  of  the  priest  of  Adar;  Siriktum,  son  of 
Ith-Marduk-Balatu,  son  of  Sin-damik. 

"  Scribe  :  Nabu-zir-irasshi,  son  of  Nabu-nasir,  son  of  Bel-aplu-usur. 

"  Babylon,  month  of  Elul,  6th  day,  1st  year  of  Neriglissar,  king 
of  Babylon." 

In  other  documents  we  see  certificates  of  betrothal 


LEGAL   DEEDS    OF    THE    BABYLONIANS,  291 

or  marriage,  as  in  the  following,  in  which  the  king, 
Neriglissar,  seems  to  have  promised  his  daughter  to  a 
priest  attached  to  the  great  temple  of  Bit-Zulu — the 
"  Tower  of  Babel  " — as  we  have  seen  above.  The 
tablet  is  unfortunately  mutilated  : — - 

"  Nabu-shum-ukin,  priest  of  Nebo,  keeper  (1)  of  the  Temple  of 
Bit-Zida,  son  of  Shiriktum,  son  of  Isde-ilani-danau,  says  to  Nerig- 
lissar,  king  of  Babylon:  'Give  thy  virgin  daughter,  Gi/itum,  in 
marriage  ;  let  her  be  my  wife.'  Neriglissar,  king  of  Babylon  [says] 
to  Nabu-shum-ukin,  priest  of  Nebo,  keeper  of  the  Temple  of  Bit- 
Zida.  .  .  . 

"  [Witnesses  :  .  .  .  ]  son  of  Nalm-iddiu  .  .  .  son  of 
Nabu-shar-usur,  the  judge. 

"  Scribe  :  Nabu-shuin,  son  of  Ina. 

"  Babylon,  month  of  Nisan,  1st  day,  1st  year  of  Neriglissar,  king 
of  Babylon." — Copy  of  the  Temple  of  Bit-Zida. 

We  have  already  observed  that  slaves  were  some- 
times given  as  part  of  a  dowry,  and  many  others  of  the 
Babylonian  contracts  refer  to  the  sale  of  slaves,  and 
illustrate  the  manner  in  which  this  class  of  persons 
were  dealt  with  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates.  For 
example  : — 

"Belilitum,  daughter  of  Bel-ushezib,  son  of  Shanashishu,  of  her 
own  free  will,  sells  Bazuzu  her  slave  for  -J  maneh,  5  shekels  of  silver, 
being  the  full  price,  to  Nabu-akhi  idclin,  son  of  Simla,  son  of  Egibi, 
'ubject  to  the  chances  of  esca]>e,  legal  complaints,  compulsory  royal 
service,  and  adoption,  which  may  occur  to  Bazuzu.  Etillu,  son  of 
Balatsu,  son  of  Dannia,  acts  as  guarantee  for  Belilitum  ;  the  one  is 
responsible  for  the  other. 

"Witnesses:  N  aid-Bel,  son  of  Shamash-akh-iddin,  son  of  Nabu- 
sheme  ;  Bel-akhi-iddin,  son  of  Takis-Gula,  son  of  Sigua  ;  Sakin-dunpa 
son  of  Marduk-nasir,  son  of  the  priest  of  the  God. 

"  Scribe  :  Bel-kasir,  son  of  Bel-rimanni,  son  of  Babutu. 

rn      O 


292  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"Babylon,  month  of  Ab,  3rd  day,  1st  year  of  Neriglissar,  king  of 
Babylon." 

Sometimes  a  whole  family  of  slaves  are  sold  together; 
and  this  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  Babylonians 
were  more  humane  in  their  treatment  of  these  living- 
articles  of  commerce  than  some  modern  nations,  which 
were  in  the  habit  of  parting  husbands  from  their  wives 
and  mothers  from  their  children  when  it  was  more 
profitable  to  sell  them  separately.  Ardiya  sold  Nabu- 
dinu-epush,  with  his  wife  and  daughter,  to  another  for 
the  price  of  two- thirds  of  a  maneh,  or  forty  shekels  ; 
and  in  the  following  document  we  read  of  another 
family  who  were  sold  together.  Their  owner  was  the 
son  of  a  priest;  and  this  is  one  among  many  proofs  of 
the  wealth  of  the  ministers  of  the  gods  in  ancient 
Chaldaea. 

"Bel-akhi-iddin  and  Nabu-akhi-bullit,  sons  of  Saggil-shum-ibni, 
son  of  Sin-damaku,  and  Riniat,  their  mother,  daughter  of  Shuzubu, 
son  of  the  priest  of  the  shrine,  of  their  own  free-will,  sell  Nabu-edu- 
usur,  Banitum-umma,  his  wife,  Kisrinni  and  Gimilinni :  in  all  four 
slaves,  for  2  manehs  of  silver,  being  the  full  price,  to  Nabu-akhi-iddin, 
son  of  Shula,  son  of  Egibi,  subject  to  the  chances  of  escape,  legal 
complaint,  and  adoption  of  the  slaves  as  sons  or  daughters. 

"  The  sellers  guarantee  one  another. 

"Witnesses:  Nabu-bani-akhu,  son  of  Shuzubu,  son  of  the  priest 
of  the  shrine  ;....,  son  of  Marduk-nasir,  son  of  the  priest 
of  the  god  ;  Marduk-ikisanni,  son  of  Baniya,  son  of  Kassadi ;  Tabik- 
ziru,  son  of  Nergal-ushallim,  son  of  Sin-karabi-isme  ;  Bel-iddin,  son 
of  Bel-ushallim,  son  of  the  priest  of  Zariku  :  Ramman-ibni,  son  of 
Zariku-zir-ibni,  son  of  the  priest  of  Zariku. 

"  Scribe :  Rimut,  son  of  Nabu-shum-ishkun,  son  of.     ... 

"Babylon,  month  of  Elul,  16th  day,  year  of  accession  of  Nerig- 
lissar, king  of  Babylon." 


LEGAL   DEEDS    OF    TEE    BABYLONIANS.  291 

It  will  be  noticed  tliat  the  adoption  of  slaves  as 
sons  is  spoken  of  in  these  deeds  of  sale.  This  usage 
has  been  thought  to  correspond  to  the  Israelitish  custom 
of  adopting  slaves,  who  were  called  "  sons  of  the 
house,"  *  as  in  Jeremiah  ii.  14.  The  Babylonian 
slaves  could  also  own  property,  as  we  see  from  the 
following  document,  among  others  :— 

"  2  shekels'  weight  of  silver,  the  property  of  Nabu-kin-akhu,  the 
slave,  son  of  Iddin  Marduk,  are  lent  to  Rimut,  son  of  Nirgal-shuin- 
iddin.  He  shall  repay  the  principal  of  the  silver.  .  . 

"  Witnesses  :  Sula,  son  of  Bel-zir-ibni  ;  Kidini,  son  of  Ramman- 
magubbu. 

"  Babylon,  month  of  Tammuz,  15th  day,  1st  year  of  Xeriglissar, 
king  of  Babylon." 

We  have  spoken  of  the  wealth  of  the  priests,  and 
many  of  the  Babylonian  contracts  which  come  from 
Sippara  bear  witness  to  the  large  property  possessed 
by  the  great  Temple  of  the  Sun-god  in  that  city,  to 
which  allusion  has  been  made  in  the  last  chapter.  The 
property  is  represented  as  belonging  to  the  god  himself. 
It  must  have  consisted  largely  of  land,  which  was 
farmed  out,  a  portion  of  the  produce  being  regularly 
paid  to  the  priests,  as  we  see  in  this  text : — 

"  Shamash-namir,  son  of  Dihummu,  swears  by  Bel,  Nebo,  the 
Sun-god  Nergal,  and  the  laws  of  Neriglissar,  king,  of  Babylon,  to 
Nabu-balatu-eresh,  the  custodian  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun-god  : 
'  When  the  month  of  Tyyar  is  ended,  I  will  pay  to  thee  the  portions 
of  corn  which  are  due  from  me,  and  the  remainder  I  will  procure  (?) 
and  pay  to  thee  in  the  month  of  Tishri.' 

"  Witnesses :  Nabu-naid,    son   of    Bel-epush,   son  of  Mushezib ; 

*  See  "  Zeitschrif t  fur  Assyriologie,"  Vol.  V.,  p.  27. 


294  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Balatu,   son  of  Irba ;  Khar-ibni,   son    of  Bel-piya-ukin,   the   priest ; 
Shamash-nasir,  son  of  Siriktum,  son  of  the  Fowler. 

"  Sippara,  month  of  Tebet,  10th  day,  2nd  year  of  Neriglissar, 
king  of  Eridu." 

We  know  how  much  use  the  ancient  and  the  modern 
Babylonians  have  made  of  the  fruit  of  the  palm-tree, 
both  for  food  and  drink  ;  consequently,  dates  are  one  of 
the  forms  of  produce  that  were  most  frequently  paid  by 
the  tenants  of  the  Sun-god. 

"  Dates  fully  ripe  ....  the  property  of  the  Sun-god, 
paid  by  Shugubbu  to  the  Temple  of  the  Sun-god. 

"  Month  of  Tebet,  4th  day,  2nd  year  of  Neriglissar,  king  of 
Babylon." 

Besides  the  fruit  of  their  own  land,  the  Babylonian 
priests  received  the  payment  of  tithe  as  regularly  as 
the  Jewish  priests. 

"  Dates,  in  payment  of  tithe,  delivered  by  Nadin  to  the  Temple 
of  the  Sun-god. 

"Month  of  Chisleu,  28th  day,  accession  year  of  Evil-Merodach, 
king  of  Babylon." 

Sometimes  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  mode  in  which 
the  priests  employed  their  wealth.  The  temples  of  sun- 
dried  or  partly  of  kiln-baked  bricks  were  often  falling 
into  ruin  and  had  to  be  restored  ;  it  was  especially  im- 
portant to  keep  the  lofty  tower,  from  which  the  obser- 
vations of  the  stars  were  made,  in  good  condition. 

"  3  shekels  of  silver,  from  the  treasury  of  Gula,  are  paid  to  the 
Temple  of  the  Sun-god,  for  the  work  of  the  Tower. 

"  In  the  presence  of  Mushezib-Marduk,  son  of  Nabu-nibshari. 

"Month  of  Tishri,  3rd  day,  2nd  year  of  Neriglissar,  king  of 
Babvlon." 


LEGAL  DEEDS  OF  THE  BABYLONIANS.     295 

Many  of  the  contracts  refer  to  the  sales  of  houses  or 
to  the  rent  due  for  them  from  the  tenant  to  the  ow.ier. 
For  instance  : — 

"  4  manehs  of  silver,  the  property  of  Shum-usur,  son  of  Nur-ea, 
son  of  Mastukku,  are  due  from  Tabik-ziru,  son  of  Marduk-usur,  son 
of  Da-Marduk.  For  his  house  which  adjoins  ,  and  also 

adjoins  the  house  of  Rimut-Be],  son  of  Zirya,  son  of  Misirai,  and  the 
house  of  Zirya,  son  of  Bel-eteru,  the  rent  is  wanting  ;  the  weight  of 
silver  is  wanting ;  the  house  has  been  in  the  possession  of  Iddin- 
akhu  as  a  pledge  for  3  years.  The  bare  places  on  the  walls  shall  be 
renewed,  the  cracks  shall  be  filled  up.  After  3  years,  silver  to  the 
amount  of  4  manehs  shall  be  paid  by  Tabik-ziru  to  Iddin  akhu,  and 
the  latter  shall  quit  the  house ;  the  rent  of  the  chamber  of  the  ser- 
vant shall  also  be  brought  by  Tabik-Ziru  :  every  door  that  Iddin- 
akhu  has  brought  into  the  house  of  Tabik-ziru  shall  be  taken  out. 

"Witnesses:  Marduk-kin-aplu,  son  of  Kiribtu,  son  of  Da-Marduk, 
Labashi,  son  of  Nabu-nasir,  son  of  Abi-ul-idi ;  Nabu-etir,  son  of 
Nurea,  son  of  Mastukku,  the  priest  of  Nabu-sabik-ilani,  son  of  Nabu- 
kin-aplu,  son  of  Da-Marduk. 

"  Babylon,  month  of  Ab,  4th  day,  2nd  year  of  Evil-Merodach, 
King  of  Babylon." 

Or  again : — 

"The  house  of  Nabu-shum-ukin,  son  of  Shamash-shakin-shum, 
which  he  has  built  npon  the  land  of  Nabu-bel-shanati.  On  the  east 
is  a  house  ;  in  front  of  it  is  a  house ;  on  the  side  is  a  house.  It, 
with  its  courtyard,  is  let  to  Sikkuti,  daughter  of  Bel-ushallim,  for  a 
habitation,  according  to  the  tablet,  at  the  yearly  rent  of  2  J  shekels  of 
silver. 

"  She  shall  repair  the  breaches  and  renew  the  bare  places. 

"  At  the  beginning  of  the  year  she  shall  pay  half  the  rent ;  at  the 
end  of  the  year  she  shall  pay  the  rest. 

"  Witnesses  :  Bel-usallim,  son  of  Nabu-irassi,  son  of  Ramman- 
samme  ;  Rimut,  son  of  Nirgal-uballit,  son  of  the  Potter. 

"  Scribe  :  Apia,  son  of  Nabu-shum-iskun. 

"  Sippara,  month  of  Tebet,  20th  day,  1st  year  of  Neriglissar,  King 
of  Babvlou  " 


296  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

In  this  last  document  we  Lave  an  example  of  a  house 
let  to  a  tenant  who  is  bound  to  keep  it  in  repair;  she 
makes  the  agreement  to  restore  the  dilapidated  brick- 
work and  to  renew  the  fallen  plaster  on  the  walls.  At 
the  present  day  a  heavy  fall  of  rain  will  often  do  much 
damage  to  an  Oriental  house,  built  after  the  manner  of 
the  native  architects. 

The  system  of  mortgages  was  general  among  the 
Babylonians  : — 

"12  manehs  of  silver,  the  property  of  the  king's  son,  lent,  through 
Nabu-sabit-kata,  the  majordomo  of  the  king's  son,  to  Shum-ukin, 
son  of  Mushallim-ilu.  In  the  month  of  Nisan  he  shall  pay  back  the 
principal  of  the  silver  to  the  amount  of  12  manehs.  His  whole 
property  in  town  and  country  is  mortgaged  to  the  King's  son.  No 
other  creditor  shall  make  claims  upon  this  until  the  debtor  has 
delivered  the  silver  to  Nabu-sabit-kata.  ISTabu-akhi-iddin,  son  of 
Sula,  son  of  Egibi,  guarantees  the  payment  of  the  silver. 

"  Witnesses  :  Shamash-uballit,  son  of  Ikisa  ;  Kalba,  son  of  Bel- 
eresh. 

"  Scribe  :  Bel-Akhi-ikisa,  son  of  Bel-etir. 

"Babylon,  month  of  Elul,  10th  day,  2nd  year  of  Neriglissar, 
King  of  Babylon." 

Many  of  the  Babylonian  contracts  refer  to  money 
lent  at  interest.  For  instance  : — 

"  2f  manehs,  6  shekels  of  silver,  the  property  of  Nabu-shum-usur, 
son  of  Marduk,  son  of  Epesh-ilu,  are  lent  to  Nabu-akhi-iddin,  son  of 
Sula,  son  of  Egibi. 

"  Every  month  he  shall  pay  as  interest  upon  [this  money]  one 
shekel  per  maneh. 

"  Witnesses  :  Marduk  .  .  .  .  ,  son  of  Baniya,  son  of  Marduk 
.  .  .  .  j  Mushezib-Marduk,  son  of  Kudur,  son  of.  ... 

"  Scribe  :  Nabu-akhi-iddin,  son  of  Sula,  son  of  Egibi. 

"Babylon,  month  of  Marchesvan,  30th  day,  1st  year  of  Neri- 
glissar,  King  of  Babylon." 


LEGAL   DEELS    OF    THE    BABYLONIANS.  297 

But  perhaps  the  largest  number  of  the  Babylonian 
contracts  are  simply  bills,  containing  receipts  or  not. 
The  articles  which  have  most  frequently  been  found 
recorded  up  to  the  present  time  as  bought  and  sold  by 
the  merchants  of  Babylon  are  corn,  vegetables,  sesame, 
dates — occasionally  palm- wine  or  oil.  Many  lists  of 
objects  have  been  found  which  formed  part  of  the 
property  of  a  temple,  or  were  given  to  it  as  tribute. 
Sometimes  these  are  animals  for  sacrifice,  or  food  for  the 
maintenance  of  priests  and  workmen,  or  woven  stuffs. 
Many  lists  of  amounts  of  wool  and  metal  are  found 
which  were  handed  over  to  workmen  for  the  purpose  of 
manufacture. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    LAST    DAYS    OF   THE    BABYLONIAN    MONARCHY. 

UNDOUBTEDLY,  one  of  the  important  results  already 
obtained  from  the  study  of  the  native  chronicles  of 
Babylon  is  the  establishment,  on  grounds  apart  from 
the  question  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  of  the  historical  character  of  Belshazzar. 
The  name  of  this  prince  had  always  been  a  puzzle 
to  commentators  and  historians.  The  only  native 
authority  on  Babylonian  history — Berosus — did  not 
appear  to  have  mentioned  such  a  person,  so  far  as  could 
be  gathered  from  the  second  or  third-hand  quotations  of 
Greek  writers,  such  as  the  Jew  Josephus  and  the  Chris- 
tian Eusebius  :  both  anxious  to  confirm  the  accuracy  of 
the  Book  of  Daniel. 

According  to  the  extracts  from  the  work  of  Berosus 
preserved  for  us  in  the  writings  of  these  authors,  the 
following  is  the  history  of  the  last  King  of  Babylon. 
His  name  was  Nabonidus,  or  Nabonnedus,  and  he  first 
appears  as  the  leader  of  a  band  of  conspirators  who 
determined  to  bring  about  a  change  in  the  government. 
The  throne  was  then  occupied  by  the  youthful  Laboro- 
soarchod  (for  this  is  the  corrupt  Greek  form  of  the  Baby- 
lonian Labashi-Marduk),  who  was  the  son  of  Neriglissar, 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    299 

and  therefore,  through  his  mother,  the  grandson  of  the 
great  Nebuchadnezzar;  but,  in  spite  of  his  tender  age, 
the  new  sovereign,  who  had  only  succeeded  his  father 
two  months  before,  had  already  given  proof  of  a  bad 
disposition.  We  are  not  told,  in  these  very  probably 
imperfect  extracts  from  Berosus,  whether  Nabonidus  was 
connected,  by  marriage  or  otherwise,  with  the  reigning 
house,  as  the  Book  of  Daniel  and  Herodotus  would  have 
us  believe ;  we  are  simply  informed  that  he  took  the 
lead  in  the  plot  laid  against  the  life  of  Laborosoarchod, 
and  that  when  the  designs  of  the  conspirators  had  been 
carried  out,  they  appointed  Nabonidus  king  in  the  room 
of  the  youthful  son  of  Neriglissar.  The  love*  of  building 
shown  by  the  new  sovereign — of  which  we  possess  so 
many  proofs  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  describing  his 
restoration  of  ancient  temples — is  reflected  in  the  state- 
ment of  Berosus  that  in  this  reign  the  embankment  along 
the  River  Euphrates  was  constructed  of  bricks  and  bitu- 
men. We  next  hear  that  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  Na- 
bonidus, Cyras,  who  had  already  conquered  the  rest  of 
Asia,  marched  upon  Babylon.  The  native  forces  met  the 
Persians  in  battle,  but  were  put  to  flight,  with  their  king 
at  their  head,  and  took  refuge  behind  the  ramparts  of  Bor- 
sippa.  Cyrus  thereupon  entered  Babylon,  we  are  told, 
and  threw  down  her  walls.  The  last  statement,  how- 
ever, we  cannot  believe,  since  there  is  no  allusion  to  such 
a  proceeding  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions ;  and  in 
the  time  of  Darius  we  find  the  walls  still  standing, 
until  the  latter  king  destroyed  them  in  part,  as  a  punish- 
ment for  the  rebellion  of  which  the  inhabitants  of  the 


300  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

city  had  been  guilty.  After  Cyrus  had  thus  taken  pos- 
session of  the  capital,  Nabonidus  surrendered  himself  to 
the  conqueror.  The  captive  monarch  was  kindly  treated, 
and  life  was  granted  to  him  on  condition  that  he  would 
consent  to  reside  in  the  province  of  Carmania,  at  a  dis- 
tance from  his  own  country ;  it  was  in  that  region  that 
he  died. 

The  historian  Herodotus — although  his  account  of 
the  conquests  of  Cyrus  is  in  many  respects  so  full — says 
little  about  the  affairs  of  Babylonia  at  the  time  of  the 
Persian  invasion.  He  tells  us,  however,  that  the  name 
of  the  native  sovereign  who  was  overcome  by  the  great 
conqueror  was  Labynetus,  and  this  is  evidently  the  same 
name  as  Nabonidus,  or  Nabonnedus.  Labynetus,  says 
Herodotus,  was  not  only  the  name  borne  by  the  last 
native  king  of  Babylon,  but  it  was  also  that  of  his 
father,  the  prince  who,  many  years  before,  had  made  a 
treaty  with  the  Lydians,  and  whose  wife,  Nitocris,  had 
done  much  to  beautify  the  capital  city.  This  earlier 
Labynetus  of  Herodotus  is  evidently  Nebuchadnezzar, 
whose  name,  indeed,  begins  with  the  same  element 
as  Nabonidus —  that  is  to  say,  the  name  of  the 
god  Nebo.  The  works  which  Herodotus  attributes 
to  Nitocris  were  in  reality  those  of  her  husband, 
Labynetus  or  Nebuchadnezzar — if,  indeed,  this  princess 
be  an  historical  personage  at  all.  It  is  interesting,  how- 
ever, that  Herodotus  states  that  the  last  king  of  Babylon 
was  the  son  of  the  great  Nebuchadnezzar — to  give  that 
monarch  his  true  name — for  in  so  doing  he  bears  out,  so 
far  as  his  testimony  is  of  any  value,  the  words  of  the 


302  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Book  of  Daniel,  which  not  only  calls  Belshazzar  son  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  but  also  introduces  the  wife  of  the 
latter  monarch  as  being  the  mother  of  the  ill-fated 
'prince  who  closed  the  long  line  of  native  rulers. 

Such  being  the  only  testimony  of  secular  writers, 
there  was  no  alternative  but  to  identify  Belshazzar  with 
Nabonidus  or  Labynetus,  the  last  king  of  Babylon, 
according  to  the  extracts  from  Berosus,  whose  history, 
it  must  be  repeated,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  actually 
seen  by  any  of  the  authors  of  ancient  works  now  extant. 
Berosus  was,  in  this  particular,  borne  out  by  the  cele- 
brated Canon  of  Ptolemy,  already  spoken  of,  the 
accuracy  of  which  there  was  every  reason  to  believe. 
Yet  the  name  Nabonidus  stood  in  no  sort  of  relation 
to  that  of  Belshazzar;  and  the  identification  of  the 
two  personages  was,  undoubtedly,  both  arbitrary  and 
difficult. 

The  cuneiform  inscriptions  brought  to  Europe  from 
the  site  of  Babylon  and  other  ancient  cities  of  Chaldsea 
soon  changed  the  aspect  of  the  problem.  The  historical 
extracts,  given  by  Josephus  and  Eusebius,  from  the 
annals  composed  by  the  priests  of  Bel,  were  indeed  fully 
confirmed,  and  the  Canon  of  Ptolemy  retained  its  repu- 
tation for  accuracy.  Nabonidus,  or,  in  the  native  form, 
Nabu  na'id,  that  is  to  say,  "  Nebo  exalts,"  is  the  name 
given  to  the  last  native  king  of  Babylon  in  the  con- 
temporary records  inscribed  on  clay.  This  monarch, 
however,  was  found  to  speak  of  his  eldest  son  as  bearing 
the  very  name  preserved  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and 
hitherto  known  to  us  from  that  source  alone.  The 


THE  LAST  DATS  OF  THE  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    303 

following  is  one  of  the  inscriptions  in  which  the  name 
occurs ;  it  was  discovered  in  four  copies  inscribed  on 
clay  cylinders,  which  were  in  receptacles  constructed 
to  contain  them  at  the  four  corners  of  the  platform 
which  supported  the  great  temple  of  the  Moon-god,  at 
Mukeyyer — identified,  as  we  have  already  seen,  with  Ur 
of  the  Chaldees.  This  temple  is  one  of  the  many 
sanctuaries  restored  by  Nabonidus  : — 

"  I  am  Nabonidus,  king  of  Babylon,  maintainer  of  the  temples  of 
Bit-Saggil  and  Bit-Zida,  worshipper  of  the  great  gods. 

"  The  temples  of  .  .  .  ,  the  tower  of  Egish-shir-gal,  in  the 
city  of  Ur,  were  built  but  not  completed,  by  Ur-Uk,  the  ancient 
king ;  Dungi,  his  son,  completed  his  work.  I  found  it  recorded  in 
the  inscriptions  of  Ur-Uk  and  of  Dungi  his  son,  that  Ur-Uk  had 
built  that  tower  but  had  not  completed  it ;  and  that  Dungi,  his  son, 
had  completed  his  work. 

"  In  my  days  that  temple  had  become  old.  Upon  the  ancient 
foundation  which  Ur-Uk  and  Dungi,  his  son,  had  built,  I  undertook 
to  erect  that  tower  anew  with  bricks  and  bitumen,*  as  in  former 
times ;  and  I  founded  it  and  built  it  to  the  glory  of  the  Moon-god, 
Lord  of  the  gods  of  heaven  and  earth,  king  of  the  gods,  god  of  the 
gods  who  inhabit  the  great  heavens,  lord  of  the  temple  of  E-gish- 
shir-gal,  in  the  city  of  Ur. 

"  O  Moon-god,  lord  of  the  gods,  king  of  the  gods  of  heaven  and 
earth,  god  of  the  gods  who  inhabit  the  great  heavens  ;  when  thou 
enterest  joyfully  into  this  temple,  may  a  blessing  for  the  temples  of 
thy  great  godhead,  Bit-Saggil,  Bit-Zida,  and  E-gish-shir-gal,  be  upon 
thy  lips ;  and  set  the  fear  of  thy  great  godhead  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people,  that  they  may  not  sin  against  thy  great  godhead.  Let  the 
foundations  of  the  temples  stand  firm,  like  the  heavens. 

"  Save  me,  Nabonidus,  who  am  king  of  Babylon,  from  sinning 
against  thy  great  godhead,  and  give  me  a  life  of  long  days,  as  a 
gift. 

*  Or  "  slime,"  as  the  Authorised  Version  says,  in  the  account  of  the 
building  of  the  Tower  of  Babel. 


304  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  Set  the  fear  of  thy  great  godhead  in  the  heart  of  Belshazzar, 
my  firstborn  son,  my  own  offspring  ;  and  let  him  not  commit  sin,  in 
order  that  he  may  enjoy  the  fulness  of  life." 

The  name  which  the  Hebrew  writer  gives  us  in  the 
form  Belshazzar  is,  in  its  native  Babylonian  form,  Bel- 
shar-usur,  and  signifies  "Bel  protects  the  king."  It 
occurs  also  in  some  of  the  legal  deeds  of  the  reign  of 
Nabonidus.  A  passage,  resembling  that  just  quoted, 
is  found  in  a  longer  inscription  of  the  same  period,  also 
discovered  among  the  ruins  of  Ur;  but  the  clay  cylinder 
is  mutilated  at  that  particular  part  where  the  words 
referring  to  Belshazzar  are  written.  We  are  able  to  see, 
however,  that  Nabonidus  is  here  concluding  his  prayer 
to  the  Moon-god  with  a  similar  petition  in  favour  of  his 
firstborn  son  :— 

"  Belshazzar,  my  firstborn  son  .  .  .  lengthen  his  days ;  let 
him  not  commit  sin.  .  .  ." 

These  passages  provide  us,  in  an  unexpected  manner, 
with  the  name  which  had  hitherto  been  known  from 
the  Book  of  Daniel,  and  from  that  document  alone  ;  but 
we  were  still  in  the  dark  as  to  the  reason  which  could 
have  induced  the  author  to  represent  Belshazzar  as  king 
of  Babylon.  The  prince  was  indeed  the  eldest  son  of 
his  father,  but  there  was  no  occasion  for  inferring  from 
the  Babylonian  records  that  he  ever  became  king  or 
exercised  kingly  power.  On  the  contrary,  the  cylinder 
from  Babylon,  bearing  a  record  of  Cyrus,  which  was 
discovered  in  1880,  harmonised  with  the  statements  of 
Berosus  in  showing  that  Nabonidus  was  the  monarch 
whom  the  Persians  overthrew ;  some  lines  from  this 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    305 

document  have  already  been  quoted  above  in  the  history 
of  the  ruin  of  the  great  city,  in  order  to  show  in  what 
manner  the  conqueror  was  received  by  his  new  subjects. 
A  few  more  words  may  be  cited  here  : — 

"  I  am  Cyrus,  king  of  multitudes,  the  great  king,  the  mighty  king, 
king  of  Babylon,  king  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  king  of  the  four  regions 
[that  is  to  say,  the  four  quarters  of  the  world,  north,  south,  east,  and 
west],  son  of  Cambyses,  the  great  king,  king  of  Anshan,  grandson  of 
Tei'spes,  the  great  king,  king  of  Anshan,  the  eternal  seed  of  the 
kingdom,  whose  rule  is  favoured  by  Bel  and  Nebo,  whose  lordship  is 
desired  by  them  for  the  joy  of  their  hearts. 

"  When  I  entered  in  peace  into  Babylon,  I  joyfully  took  up  my 
abode  in  the  royal  palace. 

"My  far-extending  armies  spread  themselves  out  peacefully 
through  the  city  of  Babylon.  I  allowed  no  adversary  to  trouble  the 
men  of  Shumir  and  Accad  ;  I  provided  for  their  welfare  in  Babylon 
and  in  all  their  cities. 

"All  the  kings  who  dwell  in  all  the  regions  from  the  upper  sea 
to  the  lower  sea  [that  is  to  say,  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Persian 
Gulf],  the  kings  of  Syria  ....  brought  their  heavy  tribute, 
and  kissed  my  feet  within  the  city  of  Babylon. 

"  The  gods  of  Shumir  and  Accad,  whom  Nabonidus,  in  spite  of 
the  wrath  of  the  lord  of  the  gods,  had  taken  away  to  Shuanna,  I 
restored  to  their  places  by  the  command  of  Merodach,  the  lord  of  the 
gods,  and  placed  them  in  seats  that  delighted  their  hearts. 

"  May  all  the  gods  whom  I  have  restored  to  their  own  cities 
daily  announce  before  Bel  and  Nebo  the  length  of  my  days,  and 
pronounce  words  of  blessing  upon  me." 

Nabonidus,  then,  was  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  and 
was  overthrown  by  Cyrus,  in  accordance  with  the  account 
of  Berosus  and  the  allusion  of  Herodotus. 


306  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

In  1882  a  cuneiform  inscription  was  for  the  first 
time  interpreted  and  published  by  Mr.  Pinches  ;  it  had 
been  disinterred  among  the  ruins  of  Babylon  by  Mr. 
Hormuzd  Rassam.  This  document  proved  to  contain 
the  annals  of  the  king  whose  fate  we  have  just  been 


SOLITARY    TAMARISK-TREE    AMONG    THE    RUINS    OF    THE    PALACE    OF    BABYLON. 

discussing— namely,  Nabonidus.  Though  mutilated  in 
parts,  it  allowed  us  to  learn  some  portions  of  his  history, 
both  before  and  during  the  invasion  of  Babylonia  by 
Cyrus ;  and  one  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  that  it 
added  to  our  knowledge  was  that  of  the  regency — if 
that  term  may  be  used — of  the  king's  son,  during  the 
absence  of  the  sovereign  from  the  Court  and  army. 
Here,  surely,  the  explanation  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  was 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    307 

found  :  Belshazzar  was,  at  the  time  of  the  irruption  of 
the  Persians,  acting  as  his  father's  representative ;  he 
was  commanding  the  Babylonian  army  and  presiding 
over  the  Babylonian  Court.  When  Cyrus  entered  Baby- 
lon, doubtless  the  only  resistance  he  met  with  was  in  the 
royal  palace,  and  there  it  was  probably  slight.  In  the 
same  night  Belshazzar  was  taken  and  slain  ;  perhaps 
he  was  betrayed  to  the  conqueror  by  the  disaffected 
soldiers. 

In  the  sixth  year  of  Nabonidus,  we  are  told  by  his 
native  chronicler  in  the  document  discovered  as  we  have 
just  seen,  the  Persians  captured  the  chief  city  of  Media 
— Ecbatana,  called  in  the  Book  of  Ezra  Achmetha — 
where,  since  Cyrus  had  made  it  one  of  his  own  capitals, 
a  roll  containing  his  decree  concerning  the  rebuilding  of 
the  Temple  of  Jerusalem  was  found  many  years  later. 
These  are  the  words  of  the  Book  of  Ezra  :— 

"  Darius  the  king  made  a  decree,  and  search  was  made  in  the 
house  of  the  rolls,  where  the  treasures  were  laid  up  in  Babylon. 

"  And  there  was  found  at  Achmetha,  in  the  palace  that  is  in  the 
province  of  the  Medes,  a  roll,  and  therein  was  a  record  thus 
written  : 

"  In  the  first  year  of  Cyrus  the  king,  the  same  Cyrus  the  king 
made  a  decree  concerning  the  house  of  God  at  Jerusalem." 

"  The  first  year  of  Cyrus  "  means  his  first  year  as 
King  of  Babylon,  according  to  a  system  of  dating  which 
was  followed  in  the  legal  deeds  of  his  reign  found  among 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions.  Whether  the  decree  in  ques- 
tion was  written  with  cuneiform  characters,  or  whether  the 
scribes  of  the  Acha3menian  monarchs  employed  another 
u  2 


308  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

form  of  writing  for  documents  on  parchment,  and 
reserved  the  wedge-shaped  letters  for  clay  and  stone,  we 
do  not  at  present  know. 

The  conquest  of  Ecbatana  was  the  beginning  of  that 
vast  accumulation  of  treasure  by  the  Persian  kings  which 
afterwards  excited  the  astonishment  of  the  Macedonians 
under  Alexander  the  Great.  In  the  treasury  of  the  Median 
monarchs  Cyrus  found  the  remains  of  the  immense 
wealth  which  had  been  seized  at  the  capture  of  Nineveh, 
and  carried  away,  as  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter, 
to  the  Median  capital.  The  riches  which  Sardanapalus 
had  hoarded  in  the  cellars  *  of  his  palace  by  the  Tigris, 
"the  silver  and  gold,  and  the  pleasant  furniture,"  were 
now  captured  for  a  second  time  by  a  nation  of  needy 
shepherds,  and  led  to  the  entire  alteration  of  their 
manners  and  morals. 

Ecbatana  was  conquered  in  the  sixth  year  of  Nabo- 
nidus,  and  therefore  eleven  years  before  Cyrus  captured 
the  city  of  Babylon  and  became  ruler  of  the  Jews.  Let 
us  see  how  the  events  of  this  year  are  noted  in  the 
chronicle  discovered  in  1882: — 

"The  troops  of  Astyages  [King  of  Media]  revolted  against 
him ;  he  was  captured  and  delivered  up  to  Cyrus.  Cyrus 
marched  to  Ecbatana,  the  royal  city.  The  silver,  gold,  and  other 
goods  of  Ecbatana  were  carried  away  as  booty,  and  brought  to  the 
land  of  Anshan. 

"  In  the  seventh  year,  the  king  [Nabonidus]  was  in  the  city  of 
Tema.  The  king's  son,  the  great  men,  and  his  troops,  were  in  the 
land  of  Accad.  The  king  did  not  come  to  Babylon  in  the  month  of 

*  Herodotus  ii.  150. 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    '609 

Nisan ;  the  god  Nebo  did  not  come  to  Babylon ;  Bel  did  not  come 

forth  ;  the  festivals  were  not  kept.  Sacrifices  were  offered  to  the 

gods  of  Babylon    and  Borsippa  in  the  temples   of  Bit-Saggil  and 
Bit-Zida." 

These  lines  explain  the  disaffection  of  the  priests  and 
people  towards  their  king,  which  was  also  alluded  to 
by  Cyrus  in  his  inscription  quoted  above.  The  ordinary 
religious  rites — consecrated,  without  doubt,  by  the  usage 
of  immemorial  antiquity — were  not  carried  on,  through 
the  negligence  or  heresy  of  the  monarch.  Especial 
allusion  would  seem  to  be  made  to  the  omission  of  the 
customary  festivals  and  of  the  processions,  in  which  the 
images  of  the  gods  were  carried,  in  the  manner  repre- 
sented in  a  well-known  bas-relief  from  the  ruins  of 
Nineveh.  According  to  the  cylinder  of  Cyrus,  and  to 
a  passage  in  the  chronicle  which  will  presently  be 
quoted,  images  of  the  divinities  had  also  been  taken 
away  from  their  respective  temples  by  the  unpopular 
monarch,  who,  through  his  conduct  in  this  respect, 
seems  to  have  brought  about  the  ruin  of  his  own 
dynasty. 

The  words  which  bear  on  the  subject  of  Bel- 
shazzar,  however,  are  those  that  tell  us  that  the  "  king's 
son  was  with  the  great  men  and  with  his  troops  "  —that 
is  to  say,  that  he  was  taking  the  place  in  the  Court  and 
in  the  army  that  should  have  been  held  by  his  father. 
It  may  be  that  the  passion  for  restoring  the  ancient 
temples  of  the  country — to  which  several  inscriptions 
from  which  quotations  have  been  given  in  former 
chapters  bear  witness — Je4  Nabonidugj  ^o  neglect  his 


3JO  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

other  duties  as  king  and  as  high  priest.  A  similar 
state  of  affairs  is  described  as  existing-  in  the  ninth  year 
of  the  reign  : — 

"Ninth  year.  Nabonidus  the  king  was  in  the  city  of  Tema.' 
The  king's  son,  the  great  men,  and  the  troops  were  in  the  land  of 
Accad.  The  king  did  not  come  to  Babylon  in  the  month  of  Nisan. 
Nebo  did  not  come  to  Babylon  ;  Bel  did  not  come  forth  ;  the  festivals 
were  neglected. 

"  On  the  fifth  of  Nisan,  the  king's  mother  died  in  the  town  of  Dur- 
karashu,  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  above  Sippara.  The  king's 
son  and  the  troops  mourned  for  three  days  ;  there  was  weeping ;  in 
the  month  of  Sivan  there  was  weeping  in  the  land  of  Accad  .  .  .  for 
the  king's  mother.  In  the  month  of  Nisan,  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia, 
summoned  his  troops ;  he  crossed  the  Tigris  below  Arbela." 

The  festivals  and  religious  rites  which  especially 
fell  into  neglect  through  the  absence  of  Nabonidus 
seem  to  have  been  those  of  the  new  year :  those  which 
should  have  been  celebrated  in  Nisan,  the  first  month 
of  the  Babylonian  calendar,  coinciding  with  the  latter 
half  of  March  and  the  first  half  of  April.  During  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  years  of  the  reign,  the  same  condition 
of  religious  and  political  matters  is  described;  and  after 
that  the  tablet  on  which  the  chronicle  is  written  is  un- 
fortunately broken. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  tablet,  however,  we  find 
some  details  of  the  invasion  and  conquest  of  Babylonia 
by  Cyrus.  We  have  here  reached  the  end  of  Nabonidus' 
reign  of  seventeen  years. 

"  In  the  month  of  Tammuz,  Cyrus  gave  battle  to  the  troops  of 
Accad,  and  the  men  of  Accad  made  a  rebellion ;  a  slaughter  took 


THE  LAST  DATS  OF  THE  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    311 

place.  On  the  14th  day  Sippara  was  captured  without  fighting. 
Nabonidus  fled.  On  the  16th,  Gobryas,  governor  of  Gutium,  and  the 
troops  of  Cyrus  entered  Babylon  without  fighting.  Afterwards, 
Nabonidus  was  surrounded  and  captured  in  Babylon. 

"  In  the  month  of  Marchesvan,  on  the  third  day,  Cyrus  entered 
into  Babylon.  .  .  .  He  gave  peace  to  the  city.  Cyrus  an- 
nounced peace  to  all  Babylon.  He  set  Gobryas,  his  officer,  as  officer 
in  Babylon.  From  the  month  of  Chisleu  to  the  month  of  Adar,  the 
gods  of  Accad,  which  Nabonidus  had  carried  down  to  Babylon, 
returned  to  their  own  cities. 

"The  wife  of  the  king  died.  From  the  27th  day  of  Adar  to  the 
3rd  Nisan  [that  is  to  say,  for  a  week]  there  was  weeping  in  Accad. 
All  the  people  gashed  their  heads." 

This  is  all  that  we  have  been  able  to  learn  from  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  about  the  destruction  of  the  native 
Babylonian  dynasty,  and  the  Persian  conquest  of  the 
ancient  kingdom.  The  materials  at  our  disposal  are 
even  now  of  the  most  scanty  character ;  if  only  the 
mounds  of  Babylon  were  fully  excavated,  what  might 
we  not  expect  to  find?  All  our  doubts  about  this 
obscure  period  of  history  might  be  cleared  up.  All  the 
records  which  the  Babylonians  kept  with  so  much  care, 
and  wrote  upon  such  imperishable  material,  might  be 
discovered. 

The  records  hitherto  found  that  refer  to  Nabonidus 
give  us  details  of  some  of  the  restorations  of  ancient 
temples  in  which  he  delighted.  Some  of  these  have 
already  been  spoken  of.  In  Sippara  Nabonidus  restored 
the  great  Temples  of  the  Sun  and  Moon.  The  Temple 
of  the  Sun  had  been  originally  founded  by  Naram-Sin, 
who,  as  Nabonidus  himself  tells  us,  reigned  about  B.C. 


312  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

3750.  Nabonidus  sent,  like  all  the  royal  builders  of 
Assyria  and  Babylonia,  to  Phoenicia  for  cedars  from 
Lebanon  and  Araanus  for  the  re-building  of  the  ancient 
sanctuaries.  Even  Gudea,  governor  of  Lagash,  had,  as 
we  have  seen,  brought  timber  from  the  same  distant 
region  for  the  construction  of  his  temples.  The  want 
of  wood  in  Babylonia  has  always  driven  the  natives  to 
import  it  from  other  parts,  and  perhaps  was  one  of  the 
inducements  which  led  the  kings  of  the  regions  watered 
by  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  to  the  perpetual  suc- 
cession of  invasions  from  which  Phoenicia  suffered,  from 
the  time  of  the  early  Sargon  to  that  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  Alexander  the  Great  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  building  ships  on  the  shores  of  the 
Persian  Gulf  and  keeping  a  navy  in  those  waters ;  but 
he  was  forced  for  the  purpose  to  procure  the  firs  and 
cedars  of  Lebanon,  after  he  had  cut  down  the  few 
cypresses  that  the  gardens  of  Babylonia  were  able  to 
furnish.  The  cedar-beams  employed  in  the  palaces  of 
Nineveh  have  been  discovered  by  modern  explorers,  and 
fragments  may  be  seen  in  our  museums :  proofs  of  the 
power  of  the  Assyrian  kings  and  the  unlimited  command 
over  human  labour  which  they  possessed.  The  same 
must  be  said  of  the  Persian  monarchs,  who  roofed  the 
palaces  of  Susa  and  Persepolis  with  cedars  of  Lebanon, 
dragged  to  their  destination  over  mountains  and  across 
rivers,  for  many  hundreds  of  miles. 

Gold  and  silver  were  employed  by  Nabonidus  in  the 
adornment  of  the  temples,  which  were  made,  according 
to  the  expression  of  the  royal  builder,  to  "  shine  like 


THE  LAST  DATS  OF  THE  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    313 

the  day."  Doors  of  cedar,  bound  with  bronze,  led  into 
the  interior  of  the  sanctuary.  Nabonidus  put  up  in- 
scriptions to  record  what  he  had  done  ;  and,  above  all, 
he  was  careful  to  restore  to  their  places  the  inscriptions 
of  his  royal  predecessors,  anointing  them  with  oil,  and 
sacrificing  victims,  according  to  the  prescribed  rites,  in 
order  to  avert  the  curses  which  would  otherwise  fall 
upon  his  head. 

Besides  the  great  Temple  of  the  Sun,  there  was  a 
Temple  of  the  Moon  at  Sippara.  This  Nabonidus  was 
commanded  in  a  vision  by  the  god  Merodach  to  restore, 
towards  the  beginning  of  his  reign.  "  0  Nabonidus, 
king  of  Babylon,"  said  the  deity,  "  bring  bricks  with 
the  horses  of  thy  chariots,  build  the  temple,  and  let  the 
Moon-god,  the  great  lord,  take  up  his  abode  therein." 
At  this  time,  however,  the  Scythians  had  invaded  the 
dominions  of  Babylon,  and  Nabonidus  feared  that  they 
would  prevent  the  design  of  restoration  from  being 
carried  out.  But  Cyrus,  who  was  then  only  prince  of 
Anshan,  and  a  vassal  of  the  Babylonian  monarch, 
defeated  the  Scythians,  and  the  danger  was  averted. 

The  Temple  of  the  Moon  had  been  founded  in  the 
ninth  century  before  Christ  by  Shalmaneser,  son  of 
Ashur-nasir-pal,  so  well  known  to  us  from  the  bas- 
reliefs  from  Nimroud  now  in  the  British  Museum  ;  and 
had  afterwards  been  restored  by  Ashur-bani-pal,  or 
Sardanapalus.  Nabonidus,  however,  beautified  and 
strengthened  its  walls  more  than  his  fathers  had  done. 
At  the  ceremony  of  laying  the  new  foundations  on  the 
old  site  the  stones  were  sprinkled  with  palm-wine, 


314  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

grape-wine,  oil,  and  honey.  The  images  of  the  gods 
were  brought  into  the  newly-restored  temple  with  much 
rejoicing. 

Besides  the  temples  of  Sippara,  Nabonidus  kept  the 
great  temples  of  Bit-Saggil  and  Bit-Zida,  in  Babylon 
and  Borsippa,  in  repair.  He  also,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  restored  the  Temple  of  the  Moon  at  Ur.  At 
Agane  there  was  a  sanctuary  that  had  existed  there 
since  the  days  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin,  who  had  made 
that  city  their  capital  in  times  of  remote  antiquity. 
This  building  was  restored  by  Nabonidus  with  the  same 
care  as  the  others,  and  here  he  found  the  ancient  inscrip- 
tion of  Shagashaltiyash,  who  reigned  over  Babylon  about 
B.C.  1500,  and  who  had  executed  works  upon  this  struc- 
ture. Another  famous  shrine  restored  by  the  last  king 
of  Babylon  was  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Larsa — a  city 
represented  by  the  modern  Senkereh — where  an  inscrip- 
tion of  Burraburyash,  the  king  whose  letters  are  to  be 
read  among  the  Tell-el-Amarna  tablets,  was  found  by 
the  royal  builder. 

Such  was  the  activity  of  the  ill-fated  Nabonidus  in 
repairing  the  ancient  and  famous  dwellings  of  the  gods, 
which  towered  above  the  walls  of  the  chief  cities  of  his 
kingdom ;  yet  he  did  not  succeed  in  retaining  the 
favour  of  the  priests,  who,  apparently  because  he  ne- 
glected some  customary  rites,  ceased  to  support  their 
native  sovereign,  and  gladly  welcomed  the  arrival  of  the 
invader,  Cyrus. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

MISCELLANEOUS  DISCOVERIES  OF  RECENT  YEARS. 

FOR  many  years  after  the  first  decipherment  of  the 
Assyrian  inscriptions  there  was  a  difficulty  in  the  iden- 
tification of  the  Assyrian  monarch  Pul,  who,  according 
to  the  Second  Book  of  Kings,  invaded  Samaria  in  the 
reign  of  Menahem.  The  latter  prince,  in  order  to  win 
the  friendship  of  the  Assyrians,  paid  to  Pul  a  heavy 
tribute,  consisting  of  a  thousand  talents  of  silver,  which 
he  exacted  from  the  wealthy  men  of  the  land,  forcing 
each  of  them  to  contribute  fifty  talents  ;  and,  after  re- 
ceiving this  sum,  the  king  of  Assyria  returned  to  his 
own  country.  Menahem  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  of 
Israel  by  his  son,  Pekahiah,  who,  after  a  reign  of  two 
years,  was  assassinated  by  Pekah,  a  captain  of  his 
army,  and  this  usurper  seized  upon  the  royal  power.  In 
the  reign  of  Pekah  the  Assyrians  again  invaded  Israel 
under  Tiglath-Pileser,  who  took  many  cities,  and  carried 
away  the  inhabitants,  according  to  the  custom  of  that 
time.  Pekah  was,  in  his  turn,  assassinated  by  Hoshea, 
who  was  at  first  the  servant  of  tLd  Assyrian  monarch,  and 
paid  him  tribute,  but  after  a  time  acted  treacherously 
towards  his  suzerain,  and  intrigued  with  the  king  of 
Egypt,  until  this  conduct  brought  upon  him  the 


316  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

vengeance  of  the  Assyrians,  and  finally  led  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  Samaria.  Tiglath-Pileser  was 
also  brought  into  relation  with  the  kingdom  of  Judah, 
for  Ahaz  purchased  his  friendship  by  large  gifts. 

The  name  of  Tiglath-Pileser  was  soon  discovered 
among  the  Assyrian  records  disinterred  by  Sir  H.  Layard 
in  the  palace  at  Nimroud — the  ancient  Halah,  or  Calah, 
where  bas-reliefs  were  also  found  representing  some  of 
the  incidents  in  this  monarch's  campaigns.  In  the 
inscriptions  engraved  on  the  alabaster  slabs  which 
lined  the  walls  of  the  palace,  and  written  on  the 
clay  cylinders  preserved  among  its  foundations,  the 
conquests  of  Tiglath-Pileser  and  his  triumphs  over 
neighbouring  princes  are  narrated.  The  warlike 
monarch  tells  us  how  he  destroyed  the  city  of 
Sarrabanu  and  made  it  into  heaps ;  how  he  im- 
paled the  king  before  the  gate  of  his  city,  and  carried 
away  his  wife,  his  sons,  and  his  daughters  into  captivity, 
together  with  the  treasures  of  his  palace.  A  descrip- 
tion is  given  us  of  the  conquest  of  Babylonia,  then 
governed  by  its  native  king,  Ukin-zir  (the  Chinzeros  of 
Ptolemy),  but  soon  to  be  subdued  under  the  supremacy 
of  Assyria.  As  a  thanksgiving  for  this  success,  the 
victor  offered  up  sacrifices  to  the  principal  gods  and 
goddesses  :  to  Ashur,  to  Bel,  to  Nebo,  to  Nana,  the 
Lady  of  Babylon,  and  to  Nergal.  Tiglath-Pileser  also 
turned  his  arms  northwards,  and  vanquished  the  terri- 
tories of  Armenia  or  Ararat.  But  this  did  not  satisfy 
him  :  the  lands  of  the  west  tempted  him  by  their  wealth, 
as  they  tempted  his  predecessors  and  successors.  He  sent 


MISCELLANEOUS  DISCOVERIES  OF  RECENT  TEARS.    317 

his  officer,  the  Eabsak — a  designation  which  the  Hebrews 
turned  into  the  name  Rabshakeh — to  Tyre,  and  forced 
the  King  of  Tyre  to  pay  him  a  tribute  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  talents  of  gold ;  the  kings  of  the  Hittites  were 
also  his  tributaries.  With  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  he 
erected  at  Calah  a  magnificent  palace,  which  he  adorned 
with  the  gold,  silver,  and  bronze  sent  to  him  by  the 
vanquished  princes  of  the  West. 

But  that  which  interests  us  most  in  the  annals  of 
Tiglath-Pileser  is  that  portion  which  alludes  to  his  rela- 
tions with  the  kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Judah.  At  this 
time  Azariah,  who  is  more  commonly  called  Uzziah, 
was  sitting  upon  the  throne  of  Judah.  Tiglath- 
Pileser  mentions  many  cities  which  were  unfaithful  to 
Assyria  and  allied  themselves  with  Azariah;  he  conquered 
them,  and  set  Assyrian  officers  over  them  as  governors. 
Menahem,  King  of  Samaria,  and  Rezin,  King  of  Syria, 
appear  among  the  list  of  princes  who  paid  tribute  to  this 
Assyrian  monarch.  The  gifts  sent  by  the  various 
countries  and  cities  who  thus  acknowledged  the 
supremacy  of  Assyria  consisted  of  gold,  silver,  lead, 
iron,  hides,  garments  of  variegated  stuffs,  of  blue  and 
scarlet,  precious  woods,  asses  with  scarlet  trappings, 
birds  of  gay  plumage,  horses,  mules,  sheep  and  oxen, 
and  camels. 

In  other  passages  Tiglath-Pileser  says  that  he  put 
Pekah  to  death,  and  made  Hoshea  king  in  his  room ; 
and  that  he  carried  away  many  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Samaria,  to  Assyria,  and  received  tribute  from  the  new 
king.  The  Kingdom  of  Israel  is  named  in  the  latter 


318  NEW  LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

passage  the  House  of  Omri :  a  designation  which,  as  is 
well  known,  alternates  with  Samaria  as  the  name  of 
this  country  in  the  Assyrian  records.  The  siege  of 
Damascus  by  Tiglath-Pileser  is  narrated  in  other  parts 
of  his  annals ;  the  people  were  shut  up  within  the 
ramparts  like  birds  in  a  cage,  and  the  leaders  who  were 
taken  alive  were  impaled  before  the  walls  of  the  city. 

The  difficulty  of  identifying  Pul  with  any  of  the 
Assyrian  kings  mentioned  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions 
became  greater  when  the  chronological  lists  of  Assyrian 
sovereigns  were  found.  According  to  these,  Tiglath- 
Pileser  was  preceded  on  the  throne  of  Assyria  by  Ashur- 
nirari,  who  reigned  eight  years,  and  before  whom  came 
Ashur-dan,  who  reigned  eighteen  years,  and  who  had 
followed  Shalmaneser  III.,  the  successor  of  Ramman- 
nirari ;  this  takes  us  back  to  the  beginning  of  the 
eighth  century.  On  the  other  hand,  the  immediate 
successor  of  Tiglath-Pileser  was  Shalmaneser  IV.,  who 
was  followed  by  Sargon,  and  his  son  Sennacherib. 
There  was  thus  no  appearance  of  any  king  named  Pul 
in  these  Assyrian  lists,  even  if  we  were  to  suppose  some 
gross  chronological  error  in  the  Hebrew  narrative. 

We  have  already  seen,  however,  that  Tiglath-Pileser 
states  in  his  annals  that  he  conquered  Ukin-zir,  king  of 
Chalda3a,  and  made  that  country  subject  to  Assyria; 
and  yet  in  the  Ptolemaic  list  of  Babylonian  kings  the 
name  of  Tiglath-Pileser  does  not  occur.  On  the  other 
hajid,  the  name  of  Chinzerus  is  found  there  as  that  of 
a  king  who  reigned  together  with  another  named  Poms; 
the  former  of  these  two  words  is  evidently  a  corruption 


MISCELLANEOUS  DISCOVERIES  OF  RECENT  YEARS.    319 

of  Ukin-zir,  and  the  latter  resembles  the  Hebrew  Pul, 
since  r  and  /  are  often  interchanged.  Could  Tiglath- 
Pileser  have  been  known  in  Babylonia  by  a  different 
name,  as  Pul  ?  This  question  was  finally  answered  in 
the  affirmative  by  two  documents  :  the  Babylonian  list 
of  kings,  acquired  by  the  British  Museum  in  1830,  and 
the  "  Babylonian  Chronicle,"  made  known  to  the  world 
by  Mr.  Pinches,  in  1884.  The  Babylonian  list  gives 
the  name  of  Ukin-zir,  who  reigned  over  Babylon  for 
three  years,  and  places  next  to  it  the  name  of  Pulu, 
who  sat  on  the  throne  for  two  years.  The  "  Babylonian 
Chronicle,"  on  the  other  hand,  tells  us  that  Tiglath- 
Pileser  invaded  Babylon  in  the  third  year  of  Ukin-zir, 
took  this  prince  captive,  and  seated  himself  upon  the 
throne  of  Babylon,  which  he  occupied  for  the  space  of 
two  years :  the  term  of  his  own  life.  Here  we  have  an 
absolutely  complete  explanation  of  the  difficulty  with 
regard  to  Pul.  The  latter  was  the  name  by  which 
Tiglath-Pileser  was  known  in  Babylonia;  this  monarch 
is  the  Pul  of  the  Book  of  Kings  and  the  Porus  of  the 
Ptolemaic  Canon ;  if  he  is  represented  in  the  latter 
document  as  reigning  together  with  Chinzerus,  this  is 
because  the  native  prince  was  still  alive  in  captivity 
during  the  two  years'  rule  of  the  Assyrian  invader; 
their  joint  reigns  amount  to  five  years. 

The  two  names  of  Tiglath-Pileser  are  not  the  only 
instances  of  the  kind  in  Assyrian  history.  His  own 
immediate  successor,  Shalmaneser  IV.,  who  invaded 
Samaria  in  the  reign  of  Hoshea,  and  governed  Assyria 
and  Babylonia  for  five  years  (B.C.  727-722),  was  known 


SAROON  :    BA8-KBLIEF   FKOM    HIS   PALACE   AT   KHORSABAD. 


MISCELLANEOUS  DISCOVERIES  OF  RECENT  YEARS.    321 

in  the  latter  country  as  Ululai :  a  name  represented  by 
the  Ilulaios  of  the  Ptolemaic  Canon.  The  successor  of 
Shalmaneser  IV.  was  Sargon,  the  "  king  of  Assyria  " 
whose  attack  upon  Ashdod  is  mentioned  by  Isaiah,  and 
in  whose  reign  the  final  capture  of  Samaria  and  de- 
struction of  the  kingdom  of  Israel  took  place  ;  and 
Sargon  appears  to  have  also  borne  the  name  of  Jareb  ; 
for  it  can  hardly  *  be  another  who  is  thus  alluded  to  by 
the  prophet  Hosea  : — 

"  When  Ephraim  saw  his  sickness,  and  Juclah  saw  his  wound, 
then  went  Ephraim  to  the  Assyrian,  and  sent  to  king  Jareb  :  yet 
could  he  not  heal  you,  nor  cure  you  of  your  wound." 

And  again : — 

"  The  inhabitants  of  Samaria  shall  fear  because  of  the  calves  of 
Beth-aven  :  for  the  people  thereof  shall  mourn  over  it,  and  the  priests 
thereof  that  rejoiced  on  it,  for  the  glory  thereof,  because  it  is 
departed  from  it. 

"  It  shall  be  also  carried  unto  Assyria  for  a  present  to  king 
Jareb :  Ephraim  shall  receive  shame,  and  Israel  shall  be  ashamed  of 
his  own  counsel. 

"  As  for  Samaria,  her  king  is  cut  off  as  the  foam  upon  the 
water. " 

A  few  verses  further  on,  Hosea  speaks  of  the  im- 
mediate predecessor  of  Sargon,  using  the  abbreviated 
form  of  his  name  : — 

"  Therefore  shall  a  tumult  arise  among  thy  people,  and  all  thy 
fortresses  shall  be  spoiled,  as  Shalman  spoiled  Beth-arbel  in  the  day 
of  battle  :  the  mother  was  dashed  in  pieces  upon  her  children." 

Another  instance  of  the  double  names  borne  by  kings 
of  Assyria  is  that  of  Ashurbanipal,  or  Sardanapalus, 

*  See  Professor  Sayce  in  "Babylonian  and  Oriental  Records,"  II., 
No.  1,  p.  18  ff. 


322  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

who  appears  as  Kandalanu  on  the  Babylonian  con- 
tract tablets,  and  as  Kineladanos  in  the  Canon  of 
Ptolemy.  Among  the  Israelites  the  same  peculiarity 
occurs,  for  Solomon  was  called  Jedidiah,  and  Gideon 
Jerubbaal. 

The  "  Babylonian  Chronicle,"  which  has  just  been 
mentioned,  was  written  upon  the  clay  tablet  which 
we  now  possess  in  the  twenty-second  year  of  Darius 
Hystaspis,  king  of  Persia,  and  is  a  copy  from  an  older 
original.  It  gives  the  names  of  the  kings  who  ruled 
over  Babylon  from  Nabonassar  to  Shamash-shum-ukin, 
the  Saosduchinos  of  Ptolemy,  and  the  brother  of 
Sardanapalus,  who  afterwards  put  him  to  death  ;  the 
length  of  each  reign  is  carefully  given,  and  various 
events  of  importance  are  noted  from  time  to  time. 
The  wars  and  revolutions  which  took  place  are  recorded, 
and  the  chronicler  is  careful  to  note  when  the  images 
of  the  gods  were  carried  off  from  such  or  such  a  city, 
and  when  they  were  brought  back  by  a  change  of 
fortune.  Among  the  political  events,  it  is  interesting 
to  find  the  murder  of  Sennacherib  by  his  son,  in 
accordance  with  the  statement  of  Isaiah  and  the  Second 
Book  of  Kings. 

Among  the  stories  told  by  the  Greek  writer  JElian 
to  show  the  intelligence  of  animals  and  birds  is  the 
following  :  An  ancient  king  of  Babylon,  named  Seve- 
choros,  was  warned  by  the  priests  that  the  offspring  of 
his  daughter  would  be  a  source  of  danger  to  himself. 
He  therefore  shut  her  up  in  a  lofty  tower,  to  which 
none  but  the  guardian  had  access,  and  when  her  child 


324  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

was  born  he  gave  orders  that  it  should  be  put  to  death. 
The  officer  who  was  charged  with  this  task  threw  the 
infant  out  of  the  topmost  window  of  the  tower,  that  it 
might  be  dashed  to  pieces  through  falling  from  so  great 
a  height.  But  an  eagle  which  was  flying  past  received 
the  falling  child  upon  its  outspread  wings  and  carried 
him  to  a  place  of  safety,  where  he  grew  up,  and  whence 
he  issued  in  after-days  to  become  king  instead  of  his 
grandfather.  The  name  of  the  child  was  Gilgamos. 

When  the  name  of  the  Chaldean  hero,  hitherto 
provisionally  read  as  Gisdubar,  was  found  by  Mr. 
Pinches  to  have  been  pronounced  Gilgamesh — at  least 
by  the  later  Babylonians — Professor  Sayce  at  once 
recognised  the  identity  of  this  name  with  the  Gilgamos 
of  Lilian,  and  thus  arrived  at  some  idea  of  the  date 
assigned  by  the  ancient  historians  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates  to  the  hero  of  their  legend ;  for  Sevechoros, 
the  grandfather  of  Gilgamos,  is  evidently  the  same  as 
the  Sevechoos  who  appeared  in  the  work  of  Berosus  as 
the  first  king  after  the  Flood,  and  one  of  the  mythical 
princes  who  preceded  the  Median  dynasty. 

The  new  reading  of  this  name,  Gisdubar,  as  Gil- 
gamesh, was  found  on  a  fragment  of  a  clay  tablet,  in- 
scribed with  a  portion  of  a  syllabary  explaining  the 
pronunciation  of  various  words.  Everyone  feels  an  in- 
terest in  the  Babylonian  hero,  Gisdubar  or  Gilgamesh, 
for  he  is  the  subject  of  the  great  series  of  legends  which 
formed  a  sort  of  Babylonian  epic,  and  contained  the 
history  of  the  Flood,  the  events  of  which  are  narrated 
to  Gisdubar  by  Adra-khasis  or  Xisuthrus,  the  Babylonian 


MISCELLANEOUS  DISCOVERIES  OF  RECENT  YEARS.    325 

Noah.  George  Smith  was  inclined  to  identify  Gisdubar 
with  the  Nimrod  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  because  the 
former  was  "  a  giant,  a  subduer  of  great  animals  in  the 
times  after  the  Flood  ;  and  he  acquired  the  sovereignty 
of  Babylonia,  one  of  his  capitals  being  Uruk,  or  Erech."  * 
Another  recent  discovery  of  Mr.  Pinches  was  that 
of  a  new  version  of  the  story  of  the  Creation,  different 
from  that  found  in  the  series  of  legends  from  Nineveh, 
and  published  by  George  Smith.  The  new  version  is 
part  of  an  incantation,  written  in  the  Accadian  language, 
and  accompanied  by  a  translation  in  Assyrian.  It 
appears  to  speak  of  the  principal  cities  and  temples  as 
having  been  created  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
world : — 

"  In  that  day  Eridu  was  made,  E-sagila  [the  great  Temple  of 
Bel,  in  Babylon]  was  constructed  ; 

"  Esagila,  which  the  god  Lugal-du-azaga  had  founded  within  the 
abyss. 

"  Babylon  was  built,  Esagila  was  completed. 

"He  made  the  gods  and  the  Anunnaki  [i.e.  spirits]  together ; 

"  He  announced  from  on  high  the  name  of  the  glorious  city,  the 
habitation  which  gives  joy  to  their  hearts. 

"  Merodach  bound  together  a  foundation  beside  the  waters  ; 

"  He  made  dust,  and  poured  it  out  with  the  flood, 

"  That  he  might  cause  the  gods  to  dwell  in  a  habitation  that 
brings  joy  to  their  hearts. 

"  He  created  men  ; 

"The  goddess  Aruru  created  the  family  of  mankind  together 
with  him. 

"  He  made  the  beasts  of  the  field,  and  living  creatures  in  the 
fields. 

"  He  created  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  and  set  them  in  their 

place. 

*  G.  Smith,  in  "  Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,"  Yol.  HI.,  p.  460. 


326  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  He  called  them  by  their  name  with  favour. 
"  He  created  the  grass,  the  plants  of  the  marsh,  the  reed,  and  the 
forest. 

"  He  created  the  verdure  of  the  plain, 

"  The  lands,  the  lakes,  the  thicket, 

"  The  oxen,  the  young  of  the  ox,  the  cow  and  her  calf. 

"  He  laid  the  bricks,  he  made  the  beams, 

"  He  constructed  the  house,  he  built  the  city, 

"  He  built  the  city,  lie  made  the  foundations  glorious. 

"  He  built  the  city  of  Niffer  ;  he  built  E-kura,  its  temple. 

"  He  built  the  city  of  Erech ;  he  built  E-ana,  its  temple." 

Some  of  the  phrases  in  this  account  resemble  the 
history  of  the  Creation  in  the  Book  of  Grenesis  ;  and  the 
cities  of  Babel  and  Erech,  which  the  Babylonians 
thought  so  ancient  that  they  imagined  their  foundation 
contemporary  with  the  creation  of  the  world,  are  said 
by  the  Hebrew  writer  to  have  been  built  in  the  very 
earliest  ages  aftej*  the  Flood. 

Among  the  Assyrian  literature,  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  prayers  or  hymns,  addressed  to  the  gods,  have 
been  found.  Some  of  these  have  been  compared  to  the 
Hebrew  psalms,  and  Dr.  Zimmern  has  published  a  few 
of  them,  under  the  title  of  "Babylonian  Penitential 
Psalms,"  Recently  Dr.  Briinnow  has  also  edited,  from 
some  clay  tablets,  a  small  collection  of  Assyrian  hymns, 
a  few  passages  of  which  may  be  given  here. 

The  Sun-god  is  thus  addressed  : — 

"  At  the  ends  of  the  earth,  in  the  midst  of  the  heaveus,  art  thou 
suspended. 

"  Thou  orderest  all  the  peoples  of  the  world. 

"  Thou  rulest  over  all  that  the  god  Ea,  the  king,  has  created. 


MISCELLANEOUS  DISCOVERIES  OF  RECENT  YEARS.    327 

"  Thou  carest  for  all  those  that  have  life ; 

"  Thou  art  the  shepherd  of  those  on  high  and  of  those  below. 

"Thou  goest  over  the  firmament  of  the  heavens ; 

"  To  subdue  the  earth  thou  comest  every  day." 

"  There  is  not  among  the  spirits  one  who  can  rest  without  thee  ; 
"  Of  the  gods  of  all  the  hosts,  who  is  mighty  like  thee  ? 

"  The  binder  of  the  prison, — his  horn  thou  destroyest ; 

"  The  doer  of  violence,  who  plans  oppression  for  his  land, 

"The  unjust  judge — thou  showest  him  bonds. 

"  He  that  takes  bribes,  and  is  not  rightly  guided — upon  him  thou 
puttest  sin. 

u  But  he  that  accepts  no  bribe,  that  takes  the  part  of  the  weak, 

"  Shall  receive  good  things  from  the  Sun-god,  and  shall  obtain 
life." 

Among  the  hymns  is  one  which  contains  a  prayer, 
addressed  by  Ashurnasirpal,  the  powerful  king  of 
Assyria  who  reigned  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  ninth 
century  before  Christ,  to  the  goddess  Ishtar,  the  Ash- 
toreth  of  the  Pho3nicians,  who  was  also  sometimes  called 
Nana.  She  is  thus  addressed  : — 

"To  the  Lady  of  Nineveh,  the  exalted; 

"  To  the  daughter  of  Sin,  the  Moon-god,  to  the  sister  of  Shamash, 
the  Sun-god ; 

"  To  her  who  determines  decrees,  the  goddess  of  the  universe  ; 

"  To  the  lady  of  heaven  and  earth,  who  receives  prayers ; 

"  To  her  who  hearkens  unto  pleading,  who  accepts  supplications  ; 

"  To  the  merciful  goddess,  who  loves  justice. 

"  Ishtar  is  distressed  by  the  sight  of  confusion. 

"The  afflictions  which  I  see  I  bewail  before  thee; 

"  Let  thy  ears  attend  to  my  words,  full  of  sighing  ; 

"  Let  thy  mind  be  opened  to  my  afflicted  speech ; 

"  Look  upon  me,  O  Lady,  that  through  thy  turning  towards  me 
the  heart  of  thy  servant  may  become  strong  !  " 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 

A    SUMMARY   OF    FORMER    RESULTS. 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
present  in  a  simple  form  some  of  the  chief  results  of 
Assyriological  research  during  the  last  few  years ;  it 
may  now  be  profitable  to  glance  back  at  the  discoveries, 
referring  to  the  history  of  the  Bible,  that  had  previously 
been  made.  What  was  learnt,  then,  from  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions,  about  the  beliefs  of  the  Babylonians  or 
Assyrians  with  regard  to  the  creation  and  constitution 
of  the  world,  and  its  first  ages,  that  may  be  compared 
with  the  account  given  in  the  Book  of  Grenesis  ? 

The  tablets  hitherto  found  recounting  the  creation 
of  the  world  are,  for  the  most  part,  much  mutilated, 
so  that  we  can  form  only  an  imperfect  idea  of  the  whole 
series  of  legends  which  belong  to  that  section  of  the 
Babylonian  literature.  The  heaven  and  earth  were 
believed  to  have  come  into  existence  through  the  union 
of  the  seas  with  the  waters  of  the  abyss,  which  had 
existed  from  all  eternity.  The  name  of  the  sea  or  deep 
is  the  same  as  that  which  is  employed  in  Grenesis  : — 

"  And  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep ;  and  the  Spirit 
of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters." 


A    SUMMARY    OF   FORMER    RESULTS.  329 

The  division  of  light  from  darkness  is  symbolized 
in  the  legend  of  the  deadly  fight  between  the  god 
Merodach  and  the  dragon  *  of  the  abyss,  whom  he  at 
length  vanquishes  and  tears  to  pieces.  Out  of  her 
limbs  rent  asunder  the  earth  and  sky  are  formed. 

The  office  of  creator,  however,  is  sometimes  assigned 
to  the  god  Ea,  who  receives  the  title  of  the  "Potter," 
because  he  formed  man  out  of  clay.  The  word  for  the 
material  of  which  man  was  made  is  not  the  same  in 
the  Hebrew  and  Babylonian  accounts ;  the  Babylonian 
thought  of  the  alluvial  clay  of  his  marshy  plains,  while 
the  Hebrew  word  means  "  dust  "  simply.  One  of  the 
tablets  describes  the  creation  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
and  the  setting  of  them  in  their  places.  The  moon 
was  appointed  as  a  star  of  the  night.  Times  and 
seasons  were  marked  out.  The  zenith  was  set  in  the 
middle  of  the  heavens,  and  the  north  and  south  were 
established  in  their  places. 

With  regard  to  the  account  of  the  garden  of  Eden, 
it  has  been  thought  that  certain  illustrations  of  the 
history  are  to  be  found  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions. 
The  word  Eden  has  no  meaning  in  Hebrew,  but  may 
be  a  form  of  the  Babylonian  word  which  means  "plain," 
or  "  field."  The  expression  "  tree  of  life  "  has  not 
been  met  with  on  Babylonian  or  Assyrian  tablets,  but 
the  bas-reliefs  and  cylindrical  seals  show  us  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  countries  watered  by  the  Hiddekel 


*  The  text  containing  this  legend  was  brought  by  Mr.  Rassam  from 
Babylon,  copied  and  described  by  Dr.  Budge  in  1883,  and  translated  by 
Prof.  Sayce  in  1887.  Dr.  Budge  published  his  copy  iu  1887. 


A    SUMMARY   OF   FORMER    RESULTS.  331 

(Tigris)  and  Euphrates  held  in  reverence  as  a  sacred 
symbol  a  conventional  representation  of  a  tree,  which 
sometimes  appears  guarded  by  two  deities,  one  on  each 
side  of  it.  This  sacred  tree  was  often  embroidered 
upon  the  robes  of  the  Assyrians,  perhaps  as  a  charm. 
In  the  same  way,  the  equivalent  of  the  word  "cherubim  " 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  found  with  certainty ;  but 
the  winged  and  human-headed  beings  who  defended 
the  entrances  of  the  Assyrian  palaces  seem  to  corre- 
spond to  the  descriptions  of  the  figures  upon  the  Ark 
of  the  Israelites  and  to  those  seen  in  the  vision  of 
Ezekiel. 

The  most  remarkable  illustration  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  found  among  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
documents  is  the  history  of  the  Flood.  It  must  be 
remembered,  indeed,  that  neither  the  account  of  the 
Creation  furnished  us  by  the  cuneiform  inscriptions, 
nor  that  of  the  Deluge  obtained  from  the  same  sources, 
were  entirely  new  to  us  ;  we  knew  from  the  extracts, 
still  preserved,  of  the  Babylonian  history  of  Berosus 
that  such  accounts  existed  among  the  literature  of  the 
Chaldean  priests,  and  certain  details  of  them  were  also 
known.  Yet  it  was  a  great  advantage  to  acquire  copies 
of  the  very  documents  upon  which  Berosus  may  have 
founded  his  history  ;  copies  made,  too,  some  centuries 
before  the  date  of  that  historian ;  and,  moreover,  the 
tablets  contained  much  that  was  quite  new  to  us. 

The  account  of  the  Flood  upon  the  clay  tablets, 
first  made  known  by  George  Smith  in  1872,  is  given 
by  Sit-napishtim  (or  Shamash-napishtim)  to  Gilgamesh 


332  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

(Gisdubar),  the  great  Babylonian  hero.  Sit-napishtim 
is  the  Babylonian  Noah ;  he  bore  another  name :  Atra- 
khasis,  which  is  probably  the  native  name  represented 
by  the  Greek  form  Xisuthrus,  employed  by  Berosus  as 
the  appellation  of  this  hero.  Like  most  of  the  tablets 
from  which  the  accounts  of  the  first  ages  of  the  world, 
as  preserved  among  the  Babylonians,  are  at  present 
to  be  learnt,  the  tablets  containing  the  account  of  the 
Flood  are  fragmentary,  and  many  of  the  fragments  are 
defaced  and  illegible  in  parts.  We  are  able  to  learn, 
however,  that  Bel,  contrary  to  the  desires  of  the  other 
gods,  determined  to  send  a  flood  of  waters  upon  the 
earth,  and  to  destroy  the  whole  of  mankind.  Some  of 
the  gods,  therefore,  without  the  knowledge  of  Bel,  bade 
Sit-napishtim,  whom  they  wished  to  save  from  death 
on  account  of  his  virtues,  build  a  ship,  and  stock  it  with 
the  means  of  livelihood,  that  he  and  his  family  might 
not  be  destroyed  with  the  rest  of  their  fellow-creatures. 
After  a  gap  of  several  lines,  we  find  Sit-napishtim 
entering  the  ship  with  his  wife,  his  family,  and  beasts 
of  the  field ;  after  entering,  he  shut  the  door.  The 
ship  was  pitched  within  and  without.  The  name  of 
the  helmsman  was  Puzur-Bel.  Now  the  waters  began  to 
descend  upon  the  earth ;  the  god  Eimmon  gave  forth 
his  thunders  ;  the  whole  world  was  overwhelmed  ;  even 
the  gods  trembled  at  the  sight  of  the  destruction  that 
was  wrought ;  the  goddess  Ishtar,  in  particular,  poured 
forth  lamentations  over  the  fate  of  mankind.  For 
six  days  and  six  nights  the  rain  descended  and  the 
storm  raged.  On  the  seventh  day  the  flood  ceased. 


A    SUMMARY    OF   FORMER    RESULTS.  333 

Sit-napishtim  looked  out  from  his  ship,  and  saw  that 
all  men  had  returned  to  the  clay  from  which  they  were 
taken,  and  he  wept  bitter  tears  over  the  sight  which  he 
beheld.  The  ship  rested  on  the  mountain  of  Nisir,  and 
remained  fast.  After  another  seven  days,  Sit-napishtim 
sent  out  a  dove  from  his  ship,  but  as  she  could  find  no 
resting-place,  she  returned  to  the  ship.  Then  he  let 
loose  a  swallow,  which  returned  in  the  same  way. 
Lastly,  Sit-napishtim  sent  out  a  raven,  which  found 
that  the  waters  had  abated,  and  did  not  return  to  the 
ship.  Thereupon,  Sit-napishtim  left  his  ship,  with  his 
family,  and  offered  sacrifice  to  the  four  winds  upon  the 
summit  of  the  mountain ;  he  placed  seven  vessels  of 
libations  as  offerings  to  the  gods.  The  gods  smelt  the 
savour  of  the  sacrifice,  and  assembled  about  it  like  flies. 
The  goddess  Ishtar  again  broke  out  into  lamentations 
over  the  destruction  of  mankind,  and  condemned  the 
folly  of  Bel,  who  had  sent  the  flood  upon  them.  When 
Bel  saw  the  ship,  and  discovered  that  some  had  been 
saved  from  the  general  fate,  he  was  exceedingly 
indignant,  but  the  rest  of  the  gods  succeeded  in  appeas- 
ing his  wrath.  The  great  creator,  Ea,  especially  pleaded 
the  cause  of  mankind,  and  blamed  Bel  for  sending  the 
flood  upon  them ;  it  was  Ea  who  had  warned  Sit- 
napishtim,  in  a  dream,  of  the  approaching  catastrophe. 
Finally,  Bel  accepted  the  defence  of  Ea,  and  bestowed 
his  blessing  upon  Sit-napishtim  and  his  wife,  who  were 
raised  to  the  rank  of  divinities. 

This  is  the  history  of  the  Deluge,  according  to  the 
tablets  found  in  the  library  of  the  palace  of  Sardanapalus 


334  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

at  Nineveh,  and  borrowed,  doubtless,  by  the  Assyrian 
scribes  from  the  literature  of  Babylonia.  The  place  at 
which  Sit-napishtim  is  represented  as  dwelling  is  Shu- 
rippak,  beside  Sippara,  near  the  Euphrates,  and  not  far 
from  Ur ;  and  after  their  deification  he  and  his  wife  are 
destined  to  dwell  at  the  mouth  of  the  stream.  Many 
points  are  omitted  in  the  above  paraphrase  which  seem 
to  be  of  doubtful  meaning,  or  depend  upon  conjectural 
emendations  of  the  mutilated  text. 

After  the  cosmogony,  we  come  to  the  history.  The 
Book  of  Genesis  alludes  to  the  beginnings  of  the 
primeval  States  founded  in  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates  when  the  rest  of  the  world,  except  Egypt, 
was  sunk  in  barbarism.  Nimrod,*  the  grandson  of  Ham, 
founded,  we  are  told,  Babel,  Erech,  Accad,  and  Calneh, 
in  the  land  of  Shinar  ;  and  Asshur  went  forth  from  the 
same  land,  and  founded  Nineveh,  and  Rehoboth,  and 
Calah,  and  Resen,  between  Nineveh  and  Calah  :  "  the 
same  is  a  great  city."  Many  of  these  names  were  found 
upon  clay  tablets  or  bricks  in  the  first  period  of  Assyrian 
research,  and  the  immense  antiquity  of  the  Babylonian 
cities  was  fully  illustrated.  The  investigations  among 
the  ruins  on  the  Tigris  also  appeared  to  explain  the 
account  of  the  cities  founded  by  Asshur. 

The  great  size  attributed  to  Nineveh  by  the  Book 
of  Jonah,  and  also  by  the  Greek  historian  Ctesias, 
had  always  been  a  stumbling-block  to  commentators. 
But  as  early  as  the  sixteenth  century  the  suggestion 
was  offered  that  the  name  of  Nineveh  was  sometimes 

*  Compare  above,  p.  149  f. 


A    SUMMARY   OF   FORMER    RESULTS.  335 

given  in  an  extended  sense  to  a  group  of  cities  situated 
close  together,  and  perhaps  connected  by  populous 
suburbs :  an  explanation  suggested  by  the  verse  in 
Genesis  just  quoted,  which  names  four  towns,  and 
concludes  with  the  words,  "  this  is  the  great  city."  Sir 
Henry  Layard's  excavations  soon  proved  that  while  the 
mounds  of  Kouyunjik  and  Nebi-Yunus,  with  their  en- 
circling rampart,  bore,  in  accordance  with  the  unbroken 
tradition,  the  name  of  Nineveh,  the  mounds  of  Nimroud, 
a  little  to  the  south,  represented  the  ancient  Calah, 
mentioned  in  the  passage  of  Genesis.  E-esen  must  have 
been  between  these  two  groups  of  ruins,  and  is  doubtless 
marked  by  the  mounds  which  still  exist  in  the  inter- 
mediate space.  Now,  if  a  line  was  drawn  to  include 
these  ruins  and  the  neighbouring  mounds  of  Khorsabad, 
a  thickly-populated  district  would  thus  be  marked  out, 
bounded  on  the  west  by  the  Tigris  and  on  the  south  by 
the  Zab,  and  forming,  in  fact,  one  "  great  city  "  about 
ninety  miles  in  circumference,  and  requiring  three  days 
for  a  journey  around  its  walls.  The  principal  quarter 
of  this  great  city  would  be  Nineveh  proper,  which  might 
quite  naturally  give  its  name  to  the  whole  group ;  just 
as  at  the  present  day  "  the  district  of  Mosul "  includes 
a  large  space  around  that  town,  and  "  the  district  of 
Babel"  extends  for  many  miles  around  the  ruins  of 
Babylon.  As  for  Rehoboth  Ir — "  the  city  of  Rehoboth," 
as  our  version  puts  it — it  means  properly  the  "  wide 
places  of  the  city,"  and  may  well  denote  the  inter- 
spaces between  the  principal  quarters  of  the  great  town. 
Nineveh  proper,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  a  city 


336  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

of  great  dimensions  ;  its  walls  are  still  to  be  traced,  and 
its  site  was  surveyed  in  1852  by  a  commission  sent  by 
the  Indian  Government.  According  to  the  results  of 
this  investigation,  the  city  was  seven  miles  and  four 
furlongs  in  circumference  :  just  one-eighth  of  the  extent 
given  by  Ctesias.  The  area  amounts  to  eighteen 
hundred  acres,  and  if  one  inhabitant  is  allotted  to  fifty 
square  yards,  according  to  the  common  estimate,  the 
population  of  Nineveh  would  have  numbered  174,000 
souls,  whereas  it  is  inferred  from  the  Book  of  Jonah  that 
the  great  city  contained  700,000  inhabitants.  Nothing 
is  more  reasonable,  therefore,  than  to  conclude  that  this 
Nineveh  proper  was  rather  the  citadel  or  head-quarters 
of  a  thickly-populated  district,  commonly  spoken  of  as 
"  the  great  city,"  or,  by  an  extension  of  the  meaning  of 
the  name,  simply  as  Nineveh. 

The  Tower  of  Babel,  or  Babylon,  without  doubt 
exists  to  the  present  day  in  the  ruins  of  Birs  Nimroud,* 
the  antiquity  of  which  is  attested  by  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions.  It  was  named  by  the  Babylonians  Bit- 
zida,  and  formed  the  centre  of  the  town  of  Borsippa, 
which  afterwards  became  part  of  the  enlarged  city  of 
Babylon,  under  Nabopolassar  and  Nebuchadnezzar. 
The  latter  monarch  carried  out  extensive  restorations  in 
this  great  sanctuary.  It  would  appear  from  one  of  his 
inscriptions  that  the  summit  of  the  tower  had  never 
been  finished  down  to  his  time,  and  that  he  was  the 
first  who  completed  the  structure.  The  ruin  is,  even 
now,  153  feet  in  height.  It  was  especially  dedicated  to 

*  See  page  273. 


A    SUMMARY   OF   FORMER   RESULTS.  337 

Nebo,  the  interpreter  of  the  gods,  and  the  patron  of 
writing  and  literature.  Nebuchadnezzar  overlaid  the 
temple  with  gold  and  silver,  and  furnished  it  with  cedar 
and  bronze. 

As  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter,  the  ruins  of 
Mukeyyer  have  been  identified  by  modern  research  with 
the  city  named  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  in  Genesis.  The 
extent  of  the  remains  at  Mukeyyer  * — which,  how- 
ever, have  been  but  imperfectly  examined — show  that 
the  ancient  city  was  of  great  size,  and  that  it  was 
especially  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Sin,  the  Moon-god, 
whose  great  temple  still  exists  in  part.  In  very  early 
times  the  kings  of  Ur  held  sway  over  an  extensive  ter- 
ritory in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  city.  Terah,  with 
his  son  Abram  and  the  rest  of  his  family,  migrated  to 
Haran,  a  town  which  is  several  times  mentioned  in 
the  Assyrian  inscriptions  ;  it  lay  in  the  region  of 
Mesopotamia. 

The  first  Babylonian  king  mentioned  in  the  Bible  is 
Amraphel,  king  of  Shinar,  who,  together  with  Chedor- 
laomer,  king  of  Elam,  and  Arioch,  king  of  Ellasar, 
invaded  the  land  of  Canaan  in  the  time  of  Abram. 
The  cuneiform  inscriptions  have  supplied  us  with 
certain  information  which  may  throw  some  light  on  the 
history  of  these  kings.  In  the  first  place,  Babylonia 
was  invaded  and  conquered,  about  B.C.  2360,  by  an 
Elamite  prince,  named  Kudurnankhundi,  the  first  part 
of  whose  name  seems  to  correspond  to  the  first  part  of 
the  name  of  Chedorlaomer,  especially  if  we  remember 

*  See  page  132. 

w 


338  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

th.it  the  vowels  of  our  present  Hebrew  text  are  often 
uncertain  in  proper  names,  and  that  the  Septuagint 
writes  the  word  as  Chodollogomor.  The  second  part  of 
Chedorlaomer's  name  would  seem  to  be  the  appellation 
of  the  Elamite  god  Lagamar,  whose  image  was  carried 
away  from  Susa  by  Sardanapalus  in  the  seventh  century 
before  Christ.  Another  Elamite  king  is  known  to  us, 
whose  name  begins  with  the  element  Kudur ;  *  this  is 
Kudurmapuk,  who  reigned  over  part  of  Babylonia 
perhaps  about  B.C.  2250,  and  who  also  names  himself 
"  lord  of  Syria."  Whether  his  son,  who  reigned  over 
Larsa — possibly  identical  with  Ellasar — and  whose  name 
was  perhaps  pronounced  Biaku,  is  the  same  as  the 
Arioch  of  Genesis  must  remain  an  open  question.  The 
same  must  be  said  of  Khammurabi,  king  of  Babylon 
about  the  same  time,  who  has  been  identified  by  some 
with  the  Amraphel  of  the  narrative  in  question. 

Upon  the  death  of  Sarah,  we  are  told,  Abraham 
bought  the  field  and  cave  of  Machpelah,  at  Hebron, 
of  the  Hittites,  then  in  possession  of  the  country,  for 
four  hundred  shekels  of  silver.  This  was  according  to 
the  Babylonian  system  of  money,  and  the  word  shekel 
means  "weight"  in  Babylonian  as  in  Hebrew.  The 
Hebrews,  however,  reckoned  fiftyf  shekels  to  a  maneh : 
not  sixty,  as  the  Babylonians  did ;  this  was  merely  a 
modification  of  the  system  which  they  had  borrowed 

*  The  suggestion  is,  of  course,  that  Chedorlaomer  belonged  to  the 
same  dynasty  as  these  other  Elamite  "  Kudurides." 

t  In  later  times  the  Hebrews  reckoned  100  shekels  to  a  maneh ;  com- 
pare 1  Kings  x.  17  with  2  Chron.  ix.  16.  Ezekiel  xlv.  12  seems  to  adopt 
the  Babylonian  computation  of  60  shekels  to  a  maneh. 


A    SUMMARY   OF   FORMER    RESULTS.  339 

from  their  kinsmen.  Many  weights,  in  the  form  of 
bronze  lions  or  ducks,  have  been  found  among  the 
Assyrian  ruins,  marked  with  the  amount  which  they 
represent,  as  e.g.  "one  royal  maneh."  The  amount  is 
generally  marked  in  Aramaic  as  well  as  in  Assyrian  : 
a  proof  of  the  foreign  trade  at  the  time  ;  the  weights, 
however,  belong  to  a  period  much  later  than  that  which 
we  are  now  speaking  of:  namely,  to  the  ninth  and 
eighth  centuries. 

It  is  when  we  come  to  the  period  described  in  the 
Second  Book  of  Kings  that  the  cuneiform  inscriptions 
supply  us  with  more  numerous  illustrations.  Omri, 
the  king  of  Israel  who  founded  Samaria,  is  not  himself 
spoken  of,  but  his  successor,  Jehu,  appears  on  the 
obelisk  of  Shalmaneser  II.  (B.C.  860-825)  as  "the  son 
of  Omri,"  who  paid  tribute,  among  others,  to  this 
Assyrian  monarch.*  The  kingdom  of  Israel  is  also 
called  "  the  House  of  Omri ;  "  but  the  name  "  Israelite  " 
itself  is  given  to  Ahab,  whose  troops  fought  against  the 
same  Shalmaneser  in  company  with  Ben-hadad,  king  of 
Syria,  and  were  defeated.  Later,  Hazael,  king  of  Syria, 
also  appears  in  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  as  being 
overcome  by  Shalmaneser,  and  as  paying  him  tribute 
at  the  same  time  as  Jehu.  Jeroboam  II.,  although  not 
mentioned  by  name,  also  appears  to  have  paid  tribute 
to  Eamman-nirari,  king  of  Assyria  (B.C.  812-783). 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  Tiglath-Pileser 
in  his  annals  names  Azariah  of  Judah,  and  says  that 

*  It  is  well  known  that  there  are  occasional  discrepancies  between  the 
Biblical  chronology  and  that  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions. 

w  2 


340  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

he  overcame  some  of  the  allies,  but  not  the  Jewish 
monarch  himself.  This  fully  agrees  with  the  picture 
drawn  of  Azariah,  in  the  Second  Books  of  Kings  and 
Chronicles,  as  a  powerful  prince.  It  is  to  be  noted 
also  that  the  Assyrian  records  give  the  name  as  Azariah, 
not  as  Uzziah,  and  thus  prove  that  the  king  had  two 
names,  and  that  the  form  Azariah  is  not  a  clerical  error, 
as  had  sometimes  been  supposed.  Menahem  of  Israel 
and  Ahaz  of  Judah  are  mentioned  as  paying  tribute  to 
Tiglath-Pileser  in  the  annals  of  this  monarch.  Pekah 
was  slain,  and  Hoshea  was  appointed  in  his  stead  by  the 
Assyrian  king,  and  thus  was  simply  the  vassal  of  the 
latter ;  and  when  he  revolted  and  turned  to  Egypt  for 
support,  at  once  drew  upon  himself  the  wrath  of  his 
suzerain.  The  final  siege  of  Samaria  was  begun  by 
Shalmaneser  IV.,  according  to  the  Second  Book  of 
Kings ;  but  of  this  Shalmaneser  few  records  have  yet 
been  discovered  among  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  ;  the 
chronological  lists,  however,  give  his  name  and  the 
length  of  his  reign :  a  period  of  five  years  only  (B.C. 
727-722).*  Professor  Schrader  also  attributes  to  this 
Shalmaneser  a  bronze  weight  in  the  form  of  a  lion, 
found  in  the  north-west  palace  of  Nimroud.  But 
although  the  Book  of  Kings  states  that  Shalmaneser 
came  up  against  Hoshea,  who  became  his  servant,  it 
does  not  expressly  say  that  it  was  this  monarch  who 
actually  took  Samaria ;  and  the  cuneiform  inscriptions 


*  The  Babylonian  Chronicle  states  that  the  "  city  of  Shabarain  "  was 
destroyed  in  this  reign ;  and  a  black  stone  in  the  Berlin  Museum  men- 
tions a  certain  governor  of  Dur-ilu  in  the  reign  of  Shalmaneser  IV. 


A    SUMMARY    OF   FORMER    RESULTS.  341 

tell  us  that  the  "  king  of  Assyria  "  who  finally  captured 
the  city  and  subdued  the  kingdom  of  Israel  was  Sargon, 
the  successor  of  Shalmaneser.  In  the  year  of  Sargon's 
accession  to  the  throne,  he  or  his  troops  took  Samaria. 
It  was  on  account  of  treacherous  dealings  with  "  So, 
king  of  Egypt,"  that  Hoshea  drew  upon  himself  the 
chastisement  of  his  Assyrian  suzerain :  so  we  are  told 
by  the  Hebrew  historian ;  and  this  Egyptian  prince  So, 
or  Sabaco,  appears  in  the  cuneiform  records,  where  he 
is  called  the  "  tartan,"  or  "  general,"  of  Egypt,  and  his 
name  is  given  as  SiVu.  So,  or  Sabaco,  king  of  Egypt, 
was  put  to  flight  by  Sargon  in  a  battle,  thus  recorded 
in  the  same  inscription  from  Khorsabad  :— 

"  Khanunu,  king  of  Gaza,  together  with  Sib'u  the  tartan  [general] 
of  Egypt,  marched  against  me  to  Rapikhu,  to  give  me  battle  ;  I 
inflicted  a  defeat  upon  them.  Sib'u  feared  the  noise  of  my  weapons, 
fled  away,  and  was  no  more  found  ;  Khanunu,  king  of  Gaza,  I  took 
captive.  I  received  the  tribute  of  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,  of 
Samsi,  queen  of  Arabia,  and  of  the  king  of  Saba  :  gold,  products  of 
the  mountains,  horses,  and  camels." 

The  fate  of  Samaria  after  its  final  capture  by  the 
Assyrians  is  described  for  us  in  the  Book  of  Kings :  the 
inhabitants  were  deported  to  Assyria  and  other  distant 
provinces  of  Sargon's  empire ;  some  of  them  were  placed 
in  the  city  of  Halah  ;  others  on  the  river  Habor,  a 
branch  of  the  Euphrates  ;  and  others  at  Gozan,  in 
Mesopotamia.  The  same  events  are  briefly  recorded 
in  the  inscriptions  at  Khorsabad  describing  Sargon's 
exploits. 

"  I  besieged  and  captured  the  city  of  Samaria ;  I  seized  as 
my  spoil  twenty-seven  thousand  two  hundred  and  eighty  of  its 


342  NEW  LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

inhabitants  ;  I  set  apart  fifty  chariots  found  among  them,  and  I  made 
my  soldiers  take  the  rest  of  their  goods  ;  my  officer  I  placed  over  the 
inhabitants,  and  imposed  upon  them  the  same  tribute  that  former 
kings  had  received  from  them." 

After  the  deportation  of  the  native  inhabitants  of 
the  kingdom  of  Samaria  to  more  eastern  regions,  some 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Babylonian  cities  were  brought  to 
fill  their  place.  The  Assyrian  kings  were,  of  course, 
enemies  and  conquerors  in  Babylonia  as  well  as  in  the 
kingdom  of  Israel,  and  Sargon  and  his  predecessors  and 
successors  were  on  many  occasions  occupied  in  subduing 
rebellions  in  the  southern  regions  of  the  Euphrates ; 
hence,  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that  some 
of  the  Babylonians  were  sent  away  like  slaves  out  of 
their  own  country,  to  weaken  the  hostile  elements  in 
that  part  of  the  Assyrian  Empire.  The  towns  from 
which  they  were  chosen  are  well  known  to  us  from  the 
native  records  on  clay.  Not  to  mention  Babylon, 
Sepharvaim  is  the  large  and  nourishing  city  of  Sippara, 
the  seat  of  the  Sun-god  ;  Cuthah  is  Kutu,  one  of  the 
chief  towns  of  the  south ;  and  Hamath  is  the  great 
Hittite  city  on  the  Orontes.  Erom  this  last  place 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions  expressly  tell  us  that  Sargon 
carried  away  many  of  the  inhabitants  after  he  had 
vanquished  the  native  king,  Ilubid  ;  and  that  subse- 
quently he  planted  a  colony  of  fresh  inhabitants  in 
this  depopulated  district. 

This  history  of  Sargon  is  one  of  the  greatest  results  of 
the  interpretation  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.  Before 
the  excavations  of  Botta  and  the  decipherment  of  the 


A    SUMMARY   OF   FORMER   RESULTS.  313 

engraved  slabs  and  clay  cylinders  which  he  brought  to 
light,  this  great  Assyrian  conqueror  was  only  known  to 
us  from  a  passage  referring  to  his  conquest  of  Ashdod, 
in  the  Book  of  Isaiah.  The  Canon  of  Ptolemy  preserved 
his  name,  indeed,  but  in  a  form  not  to  be  recognised, 
since  Sargon  appears  in  that  document,  among  the  rulers 
of  Babylonia,  as  "  Arkeanos."  The  king  of  Assyria  who 
captured  Samaria,  according  to  the  Book  of  Kings,  was 
understood  to  be  Shalmaneser.  There  is  no  reason  to 
suppose,  however,  that  either  Shalmaneser  or  Sargon 
took  part  in  the  siege  in  person;  the  military  operations 
undertaken  during  the  reign  of  an  Assyrian  king  are 
always  attributed  by  Oriental  servility  to  the  monarch 
himself,  and  possibly  the  inhabitants  of  the  kingdoms 
of  Israel  and  Judah,  when  the  city  of  Samaria  fell,  were 
actually  ignorant  that  Shalmaneser  had  died,  and  that 
Sargon  had  recently,  in  that  very  year,  ascended  the 
throne  in  the  distant  city  of  Nineveh.  The  records  of 
Sargon  now  discovered  inform  us  of  the  chief  events 
that  took  place  during  the  whole  of  his  seventeen  years' 
reign  (B.C.  722-705).  During  that  period  the  Assyrian 
armies  undertook  several  successful  campaigns  in 
Samaria,  in  Elam,  in  Babylonia,  among  the  Hittites 
and  the  Philistines,  in  Syria,  in  Media,  in  Armenia, 
on  the  borders  of  Egypt  and  Arabia.  The  fame  of 
the  conqueror  spread  so  far  that  even  the  inhabitants 
of  the  islands  in  the  upper  and  lower  seas,  in  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  through  fear  of 
him,  sent  him  tribute ;  and  the  princes  of  Cyprus  and 
of  Dilmun  acknowledged  him  as  their  suzerain. 


344  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

In  the  year  711,  Sargon,  whose  conquests  extended 
on  all  sides  of  his  kingdom,  undertook  a  campaign 
against  Ashdod  and  other  cities  of  the  Philistines 
whose  princes  refused  the  customary  tribute.  Ashdod 
was  taken,  in  accordance  with  the  statement  of  Isaiah 
and  of  the  native  chroniclers  of  Nineveh.  The  follow- 
ing account  is  given  in  the  great  inscription  on  the 
walls  of  Sargon's  palace  at  Dur-Sarrukin,  the  modern 
Khorsabad,  excavated  in  1843  by  Botta:  — 

"Azuri,  king  of  Ashdod,  planned  in  his  heart  to  bring  no  more 
tribute,  and  sent  to  the  kings  of  the  neighbouring  districts  to  make 
war  against  the  land  of  Assyria.  On  account  of  the  evil  he  had  done, 
I  had  removed  him  from  the  government  of  the  people  of  his  land, 
and  had  placed  his  brother,  Akhimiti,  to  rule  over  them.  But  evil- 
minded  Hittites  were  hostile  to  the  government  of  this  prince,  and 
raised  up  Yamani,  who  had  no  claim  to  the  throne,  and  who,  like 
them,  would  not  acknowledge  my  supremacy.  In  the  wi-ath  of  my 
heart  I  did  not  collect  the  mass  of  my  troops  nor  break  up  my 
camp.  With  my  soldiers  alone,  who  do  not  turn  aside  from  the 
place  to  which  1  turn,  I  marched  to  Ashdod.  But  Yatnani  heard  of 
the  approach  of  my  troops  when  I  was  yet  far  off,  fled  to  Egypt, 
and  was  110  more  seen.  I  besieged  and  took  Ashdod,  Gath,  and 
Ashdudimmu  ;  his  gods,  his  wife,  his  sons  and  daughters,  his  property, 
the  treasures  of  his  palace,  together  with  the  people  of  his  land,  I 
counted  as  booty.  I  settled  those  cities  anew,  and  caused  people 
from  the  east,  whom  I  had  vanquished,  to  inhabit  them  ;  I  set  my 
officer  over  them,  and  counted  them  as  subjects  of  the  land  of 
Assyria  ;  and  they  paid  submission  to  me." 

The  son  and  successor  of  Sargon  was  Sennacherib, 
whose  name  means,  "The  Moon-god  multiplies  brothers." 
For  the  first  part  of  Sennacherib's  reign  we  possess 
records  as  complete  as  those  of  his  father's  ;  they  proceed, 
for  the  most  part,  from  the  palace  which  he  founded  in 


A    SUMMARY    OF   FORMER    RESULTS.  345 

the  city  of  Nineveh,  properly  so-called,  and  which  is 
now  concealed  under  the  mound  of  Kouyunjik,  but  has 
been  excavated  by  Sir  H.  Layard  and  Mr.  Rassam. 
Sennacherib's  name  was,  of  course,  well  known  from 
the  account  in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings  and  in  Isaiah 
of  his  campaign  against  Hezekiah,  and,  as  it  happens, 
the  cylinders  found  in  the  usual  cavities  at  the  corners 
of  the  platform  of  his  palace  give  an  account  of  this 
very  expedition,  which  took  place  in  the  third  year 
of  his  reign  (B.C.  701). 

Of  Sennacherib's  siege  of  Lachish  we  have  not  only 
mention  in  writing,  but  also  bas-reliefs  depicting-  the 
events  of  the  siege ;  these  are  now  in  the  British 
Museum.  One  of  the  bas-reliefs  shows  Sennacherib 
himself  sitting  on  a  richly-decorated  throne  in  state, 
while  the  Jewish  captives  are  brought  before  him.  A 
short  inscription  above  explains  the  scene  : — - 

"  Sennacherib,  king  of  the  hosts,  king  of  Assyria,  sits  upon  his 
throne,  while  the  spoils  of  Lachish  pass  before  him." 

It  is  true  that  no  account  has  yet  been  found  among 
the  Assyrian  records — of  which  we  are  far  from  possess- 
ing a  complete  series — of  the  destruction  of  Sennacherib's 
army,  mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Kings  and  in  Isaiah, 
and  also  referred  to  by  Herodotus.  Still,  there  are 
certain  points  to  be  remarked  in  the  Assyrian  narrative. 
It  is  quite  clear  that  Sennacherib  did  not  take  Jerusalem 
or  annex  the  kingdom  of  Judah  to  his  own  empire, 
although  Hezekiah  paid  him  tribute,  as  the  Hebrew 
record  also  tells  us ;  it  is  certain  that  Sennacherib, 


346  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BJ13LE. 

for  some  reason,  did  not  carry  out  his  threat,  re- 
ported by  the  Hebrew  historian,  of  deporting  the 
people  of  Jerusalem  from  their  own  country  into  the 
east.  The  only  point  on  which  the  two  narratives 
would  seem  at  first  to  contradict  one  another  is  the 
conquest  of  the  Egyptians  mentioned  by  the  cylin- 
ders, while  the  Hebrew  account  seems  to  speak  of 
Sennacherib  as  retreating  before  Tirhakah.  This  is 
explained  by  some  writers  by  the  supposition  *  of  two 
campaigns  of  Sennacherib  in  Southern  Palestine  :  one 
comparatively  successful,  ending  in  the  extortion  of 
tribute  from  Hezekiah  and  the  taking;  of  Lachish  ;  the 

o  ' 

other  unsuccessful,  and  ending  in  the  destruction  of  the 
Assyrian  army.  Of  the  hitter  campaign  we  have  no 
account  at  present  in  the  native  records.  Professor 
Schrader,  on  the  other  hand,  believes  that  there  is  no 
reason  to  imagine  a  second  expedition  of  Sennacherib 
unmentioned  in  the  Bible  or  in  the  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions. As  he  says,  the  victory  over  the  Egyptians 
would  seem  to  have  been  very  slight,  hardly  amounting 
to  a  victory  at  all ;  there  is  no  list  of  booty  taken  from 
the  enemy,  and  no  conquest  of  the  country ;  nothing 
more  probable,  therefore,  than  that  a  subsequent  rally 
and  advance  of  the  Egyptian  army  should  take  place, 
as  mentioned  in  2  Kings  xix.  9  :— 

"  He  heard  say  of  Tirliakah,  king  of  Ethiopia,  Behold,  he  is  come 
out  to  fight  against  thee." 

After  thus  receiving  the  news  of  the  advance  of  the 

*  See  Sir  H.   Rawlinson,  in  Canon  Rawlinson's  "  Herodotus,"  I.,  p. 
393,  and  Canon  Rawlinson's  "Five  Great  Monarchies,"  II.,  p.  105. 


A    SUMMARY   OF  FORMER    RESULTS.  347 

Egyptians,  Sennacherib  made  a  fresh  attempt  to  reduce 
Hezekiah  to  submission  by  threats,  and  then  returned 
to  his  own  country,  after  the  destruction  of  his  army. 
The  last  occurrence  is  naturally  passed  over  in  silence  by 
the  Assyrian  records,  which  conclude  with  a  statement 
of  the  tribute  paid  by  Hezekiah  earlier  in  the  campaign. 
The  amount  of  the  tribute  is  identical  in  the  two 
accounts  ;  for,  though  the  Hebrew  narrative  mentions 
three  hundred  talents  of  silver  and  the  Assyrian  eight 
hundred,  this  results  from  the  difference  of  the  talent 
of  silver  in  the  two  countries.  The  Palestinian  talent  of 
silver  was  exactly  eight- thirds  of  the  Babylonian ;  the 
talent  of  gold,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  same  in  both 
countries. 

Of  Sennacherib's  murder  by  his  son  at  Nineveh 
we  have  only  recently  obtained  information  from  the 
Assyrian  records.* 

Tirhakah  was  a  king  of  the  Ethiopian  dynasty 
which  ruled  Egypt  at  this  period.  He  was  afterwards 
subdued  by  Esarhaddon,  the  son  and  successor  of 
Sennacherib,  as  we  learn  from  the  inscriptions  of  Esar- 
h  addon's  son  Sardanapalus,  who  also  fought  successfully 
against  this  monarch,  and  who  tells  us  : — 

o 

"  In  my  first  expedition  I  marched  against  Magan  and  Meroe. 
Tirhaka,  king  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  whom  Esarhaddon,  king  of 
Assyria,  my  father,  defeated,  and  whose  land  he  made  his  own 
possession,  despised  the  might  of  Ashur  and  Ishtar,  the  great  gods, 
my  lords,  and  presumed  upon  his  own  strength." 

That   Esarhaddon    was   the   son  of  Sennacherib  is 

•*  See  above,  p.  322. 


348  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

confirmed  by  many  passages.      We  possess,  for  instance, 
bricks  of  his  reign,  stamped  with  his  name  thus  :— 

"  Esarhaddon,    king   of   Assyria,    son    of   Sennacherib,    king  of 
Assyria." 

The  annals  of  Esarhaddon's  reign  state  the  same 
fact. 

After  the  account  in  the  Book  of  Kings  and  in 
Isaiah  of  Sennacherib's  only  partly  successful  campaign 
in  Syria,  which  ended  disastrously  to  his  army,  we  hear 
of  another  Mesopotamian  prince,  Merodach-baladan, 
who  sent  messengers  to  Hezekiah,  and  sought  alliance 
with  him.  This  name  belonged  to  more  than  one 
Babylonian  king  about  this  period  ;  its  meaning  is 
"  The  god  Merodach  has  given  a  son."  This  was  a 
time  of  repeated  conflicts  between  the  Babylonian  State 
and  the  powerful  kings  of  Assyria  :  the  latter  rarely 
succeeded  in  maintaining  their  rule  over  the  southern 
kingdom  for  more  than  a  few  years  without  rebellion. 
As,  however,  the  Hebrew  historian  does  not  give  the 
exact  date  of  Merodach-baladan's  embassy,  it  is  some- 
what difficult  to  connect  it  at  present  with  the  prince 
of  that  name  mentioned  in  the  Assyrian  records  as 
rebelling  against  Sennacherib.  But  it  was  probably 
the  Merodach-baladan  who  reigned  for  some  months 
in  the  year  B.C.  704  who  sent  the  messengers  to 
Hezekiah. 

Hezekiah's  successor  on  the  throne  of  David  was 
his  son  Manasseh,  who,  like  his  father,  paid  tribute  to 
his  all-powerful  Assyrian  neighbour ;  his  name  occurs 
among  a  list  of  Syrian  princes  who  acknowledged  the 


A    SUMMARY   OF   FORMER    RESULTS.  349 

supremacy  of  Esarhaddon.  In  a  similar  list  of  the  next 
reign,  that  of  Sardanapalus,  the  "  king  of  Judah  "  also 
appears  ;  and  this  is  probably  Manasseh  again.  In  the 
Hebrew  records,  on  the  other  hand,  Sardanapalus  him- 
self appears  to  be  mentioned  as  the  "  great  and  noble 
Asnapper  "  *  who  sent  colonists  to  Samaria  from  other 
parts  of  his  empire.  The  name  Asnapper  is  probably 
a  corrupted  form  of  Ashurbanipal,  the  final  I  being 
changed  into  r,  as  in  Porus,  the  Greek  form  of  Pul. 

The  Book  of  Chronicles  states  that  Manasseh  was 
carried  away  to  Babylon  by  the  king  of  Assyria,  and 
afterwards  restored  to  his  own  country.  This  event 
has  not  yet  been  found  related  in  the  Assyrian  records, 
but  there  are  many  facts  that  suggest  an  explanation 
of  it.  From  B.C.  068  to  B.C.  648,  Babylon  was  ruled  by 
Shamash-shum-ukin,  the  son  of  Esarhaddon,  and  brother 
of  Sardanapalus,  king  of  Assyria.  Now,  we  are  expressly 
told  that  this  prince  acted  treacherously  towards  his 
brother  Sardanapalus,  and  caused  certain  nations,  in- 
cluding the  tribes  of  Syria  and  Phoenicia,  to  revolt 
from  their  obedience  to  Nineveh ;  afterwards  Shamash- 
shum-ukin  was  vanquished  and  slain  by  Sardanapalus, 
who  took  the  government  of  Babylon  into  his  own 
hands.  Nothing  could  be  more  likely,  then,  than  that 
Manasseh  should  be  punished  in  the  way  described  in 
the  Book  of  Chronicles  for  his  defection  from  his 
obedience  to  his  suzerain,  the  king  of  Assyria,  when  the 
latter  had  regained  the  supremacy ;  and  as  Babylon 
was  now  in  the  hands  of  Sardanapalus,  it  is  quite  as 

*  Ezra  iv.  10. 


350  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

natural  that  the  Jewish  prince  should  have  been  held 
in  captivity  there  as  at  the  northern  capital  of  Nineveh. 
The  allusion  to  the  capture  of  No-Ammon,  or  Thehes, 
by  the  prophet  Nahum  was  never  understood  until  the 
interpretation  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  threw  light 
upon  it.  From  these  it  appears  that  Thebes  was  taken 
by  Ashurbanipal  or  Sardanapalus  in  the  course  of  a 
successful  campaign  in  Egypt.  The  prince  Urdamani 
fled  from  Thebes  on  the  approach  of  the  Assyrian  army. 
The  fate  of  the  city  thus  abandoned  is  described  in 
the  following  terms  : — 

"  My  hands  vanquished  this  city  by  the  help  of  Ashur  and 
Ishtar.  I  seized  upon  the  silver,  gold,  precious  stones,  the  furniture 
of  the  palace,  all  that  was  found,  garments  of  variegated  stuffs, 
horses,  slaves,  both  male  and  female,  two  obelisks  weighing  2,500 
talents,  which  stood  at  the  door  of  the  temple ;  and  all  this  I  took 
with  me  to  Assyria.  Booty  without  number  I  captured  in  Thebes." 

As  for  the  last  king  of  Assyria,  Sin-shar-ishkun,  or 
Saracus,  he  is  perhaps  alluded  to  in  the  brief  description 
of  Pharaoh-necho's  campaign  against  the  "  king  of 
Assyria,"  in  the  course  of  which  Josiah,  king  of  Judah, 
was  slain  at  the  battle  of  Megiddo,  fighting  against 
the  Egyptians.* 

At  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  before  Christ,  the 
Assyrian  supremacy  was  overthrown  by  the  Babylonians, 
and  the  great  king  of  the  southern  State,  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, now  appears  as  the  invader  and  oppressor  of  the 
West-Syrian  countries.  Of  this  monarch  we  possess  many 
monuments,  consisting  of  bricks,  tablets,  and  cylinders, 

*  2  Kings  xiii.  29. 


A    SUMMARY   OF    FORMER   RESULTS.  351 

inscribed  with  cuneiform  characters.  At  present,  how- 
ever, no  account  of  his  campaigns  *  has  been  found  ; 
the  inscriptions  are  entirely  occupied  with  his  work  as 
a  builder  and  restorer  of  palaces  and  temples,  and  his 
improvements  of  the  city  of  Babylon.  As  for  the 
supposed  portrait  of  Nebuchadnezzar  preserved  on  a 
well-known  cameo,  f  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  although 
the  inscription  engraved  around  it  is  a  genuine  Baby- 
lonian inscription,  containing  the  name  of  the  great 
monarch,  yet  the  head  itself  is  Greek  in  character,  and 
must  have  been  carved  under  the  Macedonian  dynasty 
on  an  older  gem.  The  activity  of  Nebuchadnezzar  as 
a  builder,  illustrated  by  the  cuneiform  inscriptions 
already  found,  fully  corresponds  to  the  words  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  which  speak  of  the  king  as  exulting 
over  the  magnificence  of  the  city  which  he  had  himself 
done  so  much  to  enlarge  and  beautify  : — 

"  The  king  spake,  and  said,  Is  not  this  great  Babylon,  that  I 
have  built  for  the  house  of  the  kingdom  by  the  might  of  my  power, 
and  for  the  honour  of  my  majesty  1 " 

In  his  own  annals,  Nebuchadnezzar  speaks  in  the 
same  way  of  the  palace  which  he  had  built  as  the 
"  dwelling-place  of  his  kingdom,"  or  "  royalty,"  and 
boasts  of  having  enlarged  the  city  of  Babylon  and  built 
the  two  great  walls  around  it.  Within  this  great  city, 

*  There  are  two  fragments  of  a  clay  tablet  which  contained  an 
account  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  conquest  of  Egypt  (Jer.  xliii.  16  ff. ;  Ez. 
xxix.  19).  Only  a  few  words  can  be  made  oat. 

t  Now  in  the  Museum  at  Florence.  If  not  of  the  Macedonian  period, 
it  may  well  have  been  carved  under  the  Parthians,  who  allowed  Seleucia 
to  remain  in  many  ways  a  Greek  city. 


352  NEW   LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

as  lie  says,  lie  received  tribute  from  all  the  princes  of 
the  earth,  and  the  homage  of  all  mankind.  The  chief 
temples  were,  restored  by  him,  and  overlaid  with  gold 
until  they  shone  like  the  sun.  It  is  well  known  that 
almost  all  the  bricks  dug  up  in  such  quantities  by  the 
Arabs  on  the  site  of  Babylon,  and  employed  in  the 
erection  of  modern  houses,  bear  the  name  of  "  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, the  son  of  Nabopolassar,"  upon  them. 

Of  the  last  days  of  the  Babylonian  monarchy  we 
have  already  heard  in  a  former  chapter.  We  have  seen 
that  Belshazzar  was  an  historical  personage,  to  whose 
existence  ample  testimony  is  borne  by  the  native 
records,  as  well  as  by  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and  that  the 
capture  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus  is  mentioned  in  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  in  terms  that  agree  with  the 
allusions  in  the  same  book  :  the  city  was  taken  unex- 
pectedly, and  without  resistance.  Nothing,  however,  has 
yet  been  found  to  explain  the  position  of  Darius  the 
Mede,  but  the  same  observation  would  have  been  made 
some  time  ago  about  Belshazzar,  about  Pul,  and  about 
Sargon.  The  Babylonian  tablets  have  shown  us  the 
origin  of  the  names  of  the  months  employed  by  the 
Jews  from  the  time  of  the  captivity.  Two  of  these 
names  may  be  singled  out — that  of  Marchesvan,  which 
is  in  Babylonian  Arakh-samna :  that  is  to  say,  the 
eighth  month,  in  accordance  with  its  position  in  the 
calendar ;  and  Weadar,  which  was  called  on  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates  "  the  intercalary  month  of  Adar,"  and 
was  inserted  from  time  to  time,  to  keep  the  calendar  in 
accordance  with  the  march  of  the  sun, 


A    SUMMARY   OF  FORMER    RESULTS.  353 

The  Persian  kings  who  are  named  in  the  Books  of 
Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and  Esther  are  well  known  to  us  from 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  as  it  has  already  been  pointed 
out.  The  character  of  Cyrus  and  the  conciliatory  policy 
which  he  adopted  towards  the  peoples  whom  he  con- 
quered are  well  illustrated  by  the  monuments  of  his 
reign  found  in  Babylonia.  He  professes  in  these 
documents  to  be  the  servant  of  the  native  gods,  and 
he  carries  out  the  desire  of  the  priests  in  restoring  the 
images  of  the  gods  to  their  own  cities  and  temples  from 
which  they  had  been  brought  to  Babylon  by  Naboni- 
dus,  whose  policy  it  seems  to  have  been  to  make  the 
capital  a  centre  *  of  religious  worship,  just  as  Jerusalem 
was  in  the  west,  and  to  destroy  the  local  cults,  which 
were  so  deeply  rooted  in  the  hearts  of  his  subjects,  that 
in  the  hope  of  their  restoration  they  eagerly  welcomed 
a  foreign  invader. 

*  See  Sayce  :  "  Hibbert  Lectures." 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE    ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS. 

FROM  the  glimpses  that  we  catch  in  the  pages  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets  and  historians,  we  are  able  to  form 
some  idea  of  the  power  and  wealth  of  the  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  monarchs.  We  hear  of  their  repeated 
invasions  of  the  kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Judah,  and  of 
the  countries  that  lay  upon  the  borders  of  these  small 
principalities  ;  and  we  see  the  kings  of  Samaria  and 
of  Jerusalem  paying  heavy  tribute,  or  carried  off  as 
captives,  or  put  to  death  as  a  punishment  for  having 
intrigued  with  other  nations  against  the  Assyrians. 
To  collect  together  the  amount  of  the  tribute  extorted 
by  their  suzerains,  the  vassal-kings  would  even  tear 
off  the  gold  with  which  the  doors  and  pillars  of  the 
Temple  itself  were  overlaid,  and  would  pillage  the 
treasury  of  Jehovah  in  order  to  satisfy  the  demands 
of  the  all-powerful  monarch,  whose  armies  were  ravag- 
ing the  surrounding  regions,  carrying  away  the  in- 
habitants into  slavery,  and  leaving  desolation  behind 
wherever  they  appeared.  We  also  hear  of  the  great- 
ness of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  the  capitals  of  empires 
and  the  centres  of  trade,  where  all  the  culture  and 


THE    ASSYRIANS   AS    CONQUERORS.  355 

luxury  that  the  time  could  boast  of  had  reached  their 
culminating  point. 

The  picture  painted  for  us  by  the  Hebrew  writers 
has  been  explained  and  rendered  more  intelligible  by 
the  na';ive  records  which  have  been  brought  to  lip-lit 

~  o 

during  this  century,  and  interpreted  through  the 
patient  labour  of  modern  scholars.  The  annals  of  the 
Assyrian  kings  are  little  more  than  a  list  of  conquests 
or  a  record  of  architectural  work ;  these  monarchs  seem 
to  have  been  constantly  occupied  either  in  overrunning 
the  surrounding  countries  at  the  head  of  their  armies, 
making  slaves  of  the  inhabitants,  and  seizing  all  the 
wealth  that  could  be  found  in  the  captured  cities,  or 
in  erecting  great  palaces  and  temples  of  brick  and 
slime,  whose  tops  should  reach  unto  heaven,  in  the 
midst  of  their  strongly-fortified  cities.  In  whatever 
direction  the  Assyrian  armies  turned,  the  same  results 
followed  ;  in  Elam,  in  Media,  in  Armenia,  in  Cappa- 
docia,  in  Syria,  in  Canaan,  the  "  fenced  cities  were 
turned  into  ruinous  heaps,"  like  the  "  sandhills  formed 
by  the  whirlwind,"  and  the  inhabitants  were  "dismayed 
and  confounded,"  for  the  conquerors  "reckoned  them 
as  their  spoil,"  together  with  the  gold  and  silver,  the 
weapons  of  war,  the  chariots,  and  the  furniture  of  the 
houses. 

This  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  the  history  of  the 
Assyrians  from  the  earliest  period,  although  there  were, 
naturally,  long  intervals  during  which  their  power  was 
weakened  for  a  time,  and  the  course  of  their  conquests 
was  stopped.  According  to  the  tradition  received  by  the 


356  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Greek  and  Roman  writers  who  composed  histories  of 
the  East,  the  Assyrians  were  the  first  to  enlarge  their 
dominions  beyond  their  own  borders  :  the  first,  in  fact, 
to  found  an  empire. 

"In  the  remotest  antiquity  .  .  .  the  nations  were  occupied 
in  defending  their  own  borders  rather  than  in  enlarging  them  ;  the 
kings  were  confined  within  the  territories  handed  down  to  them  by 
their  ancestors.  Ninus,  king  of  Assyria,  was  the  first  whom  the 
ambition  to  found  an  empire  drove  to  change  the  ancient  order  of 
things.  He  was  the  first  who  made  war  upon  his  neighbours,  and  he 
overcame  the  tribes,  yet  inexperienced  in  the  arts  of  defence,  as  far 
as  the  boundaries  of  Libya."  * 

Ninus,  of  course,  is  the  mythical  king  whose  name 
occurs  only  in  Greek  and  Roman  writers,  and  was 
borrowed  from  that  of  the  city  of  Nineveh,  which  they 
also  call  Ninus  ;  but  the  rest  of  Justin's  words  seem  to 
be  borne  out  by  what  we  learn  from  the  native  records. 

The  first  Assyrian  conqueror  of  whom  we  hear  is 
Sargon  of  Agane.t  The  account  of  this  monarch's 
origin  in  some  points  resembles  the  history  of  Moses ; 
for,  like  the  Hebrew  law-giver,  Sargon  was  exposed  by 
his  mother  in  a  basket  of  reeds  daubed  with  slirne  and 
with  pitch,  but  was  afterwards  rescued,  and  lived  to 
achieve  greatness.  Sargon's  mother  was  a  princess,  but 
his  father  was  unknown ;  "  the  brother  of  his  father 
dwelt  on  the  mountain."  His  mother,  to  conceal  his 
birth,  placed  him  in  a  basket  of  reeds,  smeared  with 
bitumen,  on  the  river  Euphrates,  from  whence  he  was 
rescued  by  Akki,  the  irrigator,  who  brought  him  up  as 
his  own  son,  and  made  him,  his  gardener ;  the  goddess 

*  Justin,  i.  1.  t  See  above,  pp.  145  and  265. 


THE   ASSYRIANS   AS    CONQUERORS.  357 

Ishtar  conceived  an  affection  for  him,  and  eventually — 
by  what  steps  we  are  not  told — set  him  upon  the  throne 
of  Accad.  This  part  of  the  story  is  evidently  a  legend ; 
but  of  the  historical  character  of  Sargon  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  for  we  possess  several  short  inscriptions  of  his 
time,  and  of  the  time  of  his  son,  Nararn-Sin  ;  nor  is 
there  reason  to  doubt  the  account  of  his  wars.  Sargon 
extended  his  conquests  to  the  Mediterranean  on  the 
west  and  to  the  Persian  Gulf  on  the  south ;  and  more 
than  this,  he  crossed  the  seas  to  the  island  of  Cyprus 
on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  islands  of  Dilmun,  or 
Bahrein,  on  the  other.  His  conquest  of  Cyprus  is  borne 
witness  to  by  an  inscription  that  has  been  found  in 
that  island ;  in  this  his  son,  Naram-Sin,  is  worshipped 
as  a  god.  The  land  of  Elam  was  also  included  in 
Sargon's  conquests,  as  it  was  in  those  of  some  of  his 
remote  successors  in  the  government  of  Babylonia. 

The  son  of  Sargon  was  Naram-Sin,  the  founder  of 
the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Sippara.  This  prince  is  said 
to  have  conquered  Magan,  a  country  identified  with  the 
peninsula  of  Sinai,*  although  the  name  was  applied 
more  extensively  in  later  days  to  the  territories  of 
Ethiopia.  It  was  from  Magan  that  Gudea,  the  ruler 
of  Lagash,  obtained,  as  we  have  seen,  the  blocks  of 
diorite  out  of  which  his  statues  and  other  sculptured 
works  were  made.  It  may  have  been  through  the 
conquests  of  Naram-Sin  that  the  acquisition  of  this 
stone  was  made  possible.  Perhaps  the  copper  which 
Gudea  used  for  his  statuettes,  now  in  the  British 

*  See  above,  p.  156. 


358  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Museum  and  in  the  Louvre,  and  for  the  adornment  of 
his  temples,  also  came  from  the  mines  of  Sinai ;  the 
copper  of  Cyprus,  however,  is  of  better  quality,  and, 
as  Sargon  had  subdued  Cyprus,  there  may  already  have 
been,  in  these  very  early  times,  an  influx  of  this  metal 
from  the  island  which  afterwards  gave  it  its  Latin  name 
into  Babylonia.  The  intercourse  between  Egypt  and 
Bab}Tlonia  at  this  remote  period  is  further  illustrated  by 
the  scale  of  measurement  found  on  the  graduated  rule 
which  Gudea  holds  on  his  knee  in  the  statue  which  repre- 
sents him  in  the  character  of  architect;  *  for  the  standard 
of  measurement  here  marked  is  recognised  by  Mr.  Petrie 
as  identical  with  that  used  by  the  Egyptians  of  the 
fourth  and  two  following  dynasties,  and  as  differing 
slightly  from  that  employed  in  later  times  by  the 
Babylonians  and  Assyrians. 

The  kings  of  Ur,  Erech,  and  Nipur  seem  to  have 
extended  their  conquests  over  the  neighbouring  regions, 
but  we  do  not  know  how  far.  The  title  "  king  of  the 
four  regions,"  of  the  north,  south,  east  and  west,  is 
borne  by  Dungi,  King  of  Ur,  and  by  other  rulers  of  the 
same  city  ;  but  the  inscriptions  of  these  early  times  are 
often  limited  to  the  stamps  upon  the  bricks  of  which  the 
buildings  were  constructed,  or  to  dedicatory  lines  upon 
votive  objects. 

The  first  event  in  Babylonian  history  recorded  in  the 
Hebrew  books,  except  the  foundation  of  the  great  tower, 
is  the  invasion  of  Syria  by  Chedorlaomer,  King  of 
Elam,  Amraphel,  King  of  Shinar,  and  their  allies.  As 

*  See  above,  p.  159  f. 


THE    ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS.  359 

we  have  already  seen,  Kudurmapuk — an  Elamite  prince, 
probably  of  the  same  dynasty  as  Chedorlaomer — calls 
himself  "  Lord  of  Syria  "  in  a  cuneiform  inscription. 
This  is  another  instance  of  the  warlike  expeditions 
which  the  kings  of  the  Mesopotamian  valleys  made,  all 
through  their  history,  into  the  surrounding  countries, 
and  especially  into  the  territories  which  lie  upon  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  Elamite  dynasty  was 
overthrown  by  Khammurabi,  the  first  king  of  the  city 
of  Babylon  of  whom  we  have  monuments,  who,  pro- 
bably not  long  before  B.C.  2200,  established  the  supre- 
macy of  that  city  in  the  lower  valley  of  the  Euphrates. 
During  the  next  age  the  States  of  Mesopotamia  do 
not  seem  to  have  extended  their  conquests  beyond  the 
limits  of  that  region.  They  were,  doubtless,  sufficiently 
occupied  with  wars  among  themselves.  The  kingdoms 
of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  were  now  formed.  The 
southern  kingdom  was  ruled  for  many  centuries  by  the 
Kassite  dynasty,  to  which  Burraburyash  belonged — a 
prince  made  familiar  to  us  by  the  Tell  el-Amarna 
tablets.  Of  the  quarrels  between  Assyria  and  Baby- 
lonia, in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  before 
Christ,  we  have  some  knowledge  through  the  "  Synchro- 
nous History,"  already  quoted.*  It  is  also  hinted,  in 
the  letters  of  Burraburyash,  that  the  Assyrians  as  well 
as  the  Canaanites  attempted,  from  time  to  time,  to  resist 
the  supremacy  of  the  .Egyptian  power  in  Western  Asia 
at  this  period.  But  the  armies  of  the  Nile  were  too 
strong,  for  several  centuries,  to  allow  the  Babylonians  or 

*  See  above,  p.  194  f. 


360  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Assyrians  to  overrun  the  principalities  of  Syria  and 
Canaan,  as  they  had  done  in  the  preceding  age.  From 
the  destruction  of  the  Hyksos  until  the  latter  days  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty,  Egypt  was  acknowledged  as 
mistress  in  Syria,  and  received  the  tribute  of  Tyre  and 
Jerusalem.  Then  came  a  period  of  Hittite  supremacy, 
until  this  was  weakened  by  the  victories  of  Rameses  II. 
But  the  Egyptians  never  again  ruled  in  Western  Asia 
as  they  had  done  under  Thothmes  and  Amenophis. 
There  was  a  period  during  which  the  Syrian  States  were 
left  to  develop  themselves,  undisturbed  by  their  power- 
ful neighbours  ;  in  this  interval  the  Israelites  took  pos- 
session of  Canaan,  and  eventually  founded  the  kingdoms 
of  Israel  and  Judah.  Then  the  armies  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates  again  began  to  make  the  small  States  of 
Syria  their  prey  from  time  to  time  ;  and  the  treasuries 
of  Mesopotamian  cities  were  again  filled  with  the  spoils 
of  Phoenicia.  This  period  of  Assyrian  conquest  was 
ushered  in  by  Tiglath-Pileserl.,  who  reigned  about  B.C. 
1100.  The  following  are  the  titles  which  this  prince 
gives  to  himself  in  the  prelude  to  his  annals  : — 

"  Tiglath-Pileser,  the  mighty  king,  the  king  of  nations,  without 
equal ;  the  king  of  the  four  regions  of  the  world ;  the  king  of  all 
princes,  the  lord  of  lords,  the  king  of  kings ;  the  high  priest,  to 
whom  the  glorious  sceptre  has  been  given  in  the  name  of  the  Sun- 
god  ;  the  ruler  of  all  the  subjects  of  the  god  Bel ;  the  true  prince, 
whose  power  over  all  rulers  is  acknowledged;  the  high  judge,  whose 
weapons  clash  in  the  service  of  the  god  Ashur ;  whose  name  is  called 
to  rule  over  the  four  quarters  of  the  world  for  ever  ;  who  has  carried 
his  power  like  the  advancing  storm  into  the  land  of  the  enemy  ;  who, 
by  the  will  of  Bel,  has  no  adversary,  and  has  overthrown  the  enemies 
of  Ashur." 


THE   ASSYRIANS   AS    CONQUERORS.  361 

At  the  beginning  of  bis  reign,  Tiglatb-Pileser  in- 
vaded Commagene,  in  North-eastern  Syria,  where  he 
captured  the  cities,  slew  large  numbers  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, and  carried  off  others  into  slavery.  The  pretext 
for  his  attack  upon  this  nation  was  that  they  had  refused 
to  pay  tribute  to  the  god  Ashur,  or,  in  other  words,  to 
the  Assyrian  king  himself ;  and  this  makes  it  probable 
that  Commagene  had  already  acknowledged  the  su- 
premacy of  Assyria  in  earlier  reigns.  Some  of  the 
troops  of  the  invaded  district  fled  to  Shirishi,  a  city  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Tigris ;  but  they  were  pursued  by 
the  relentless  conqueror,  and  the  city  was  taken  and 
sacked.  The  list  of  booty  is  given,  according  to  the 
general  custom  of  the  Assyrian  annalists,  and  shows  the 
real  object  for  which  such  expeditions  were  undertaken. 
Tiglath-Pileser  took  into  captivity  the  king,  his  wives, 
and  his  children,  and  carried  away  all  his  treasure  of 
gold,  silver,  and  bronze,  and  the  images  of  his  gods. 
The  whole  territory  of  Commagene  was  made  part  of  the 
Assyrian  Empire. 

After  this  victory,  Tiglath-Pileser  led  his  armies 
into  the  mountainous  region  north  of  the  recently-van- 
quished country.  As  far  as  it  was  possible,  the  Assyrians 
took  their  chariots ;  but  when  the  mountain  passes  be- 
came too  rough  for  the  chariots,  the  army,  with  the  king 
at  their  head,  scaled  the  precipices  on  foot.  The  town 
of  Mildish — a  hill-fortress — was  taken,  and  turned  into 
a  heap,  and  all  its  treasures  were  carried  off. 

Many  of  the  neighbouring  regions  were  overrun  in 
the  same  way  by  Tiglath-Pileser,  who  took  the  cities  and 


362  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

carried  off  the  booty.  The  land  of  the  Hittites  was 
invaded,  and  their  capital,  Carchemish,  was  captured; 
many  of  the  inhabitants  were  slain,  and  the  spoils  that 
were  carried  off  were  "  without  number."  In  his  inva- 
sion of  the  land  of  the  Hittites,  Tiglath-Pileser  even 
reached  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  In  his  own 
words  : — 

"Altogether,  my  hand  conquered  forty-two  countries  and  their 
princes,  from  beyond  the  Lower  Zab  to  beyond  the  Euphrates,  to  the 
land  of  the  Hittites  and  the  upper  western  sea,  between  the  begin- 
ning of  my  reign  and  the  fifth  year  of  my  government.  I  united  the 
lands  together,  I  took  their  hostages,  and  I  imposed  upon  them  the 
payment  of  tribute." 

After  the  account  of  his  military  campaigns,  Tiglath- 
Pileser  gives  us  a  description  of  his  hunting  expeditions. 
These  he  represents  as  undertaken  in  the  service  of  the 
gods  as  much  as  his  wars ;  and  his  success  in  both  is 
entirely  attributed  to  the  divine  assistance  that  he  re- 
ceived. In  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Habor — that 
branch  of  the  Euphrates  on  which  the  captive  Israelites 
were  settled  in  later  times — the  Assyrian  king  slew  ten 
elephants,  and  he  also  killed  920  lions  in  the  same 
regions.  The  elephant  has  long  disappeared  from  that 
part  of  the  world,  and  the  lion,  though  still  existing,  is 
far  from  common. 

When  the  success  of  his  campaigns  allowed  him  to 
indulge  in  the  enjoyments  of  peace,  Tiglath-Pileser  em- 
ployed himself  in  the  erection  of  temples  to  the  gods, 
and  in  restoring  ruined  palaces  and  city  walls  through- 
out lus  kingdom,  He  also  planted  parks  with  cedars 


THE    ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS.  363 

and  other  trees  that  he  had  brought  from  the  countries 
conquered  by  him. 

The  history  of  Tiglath-Pileser  I.  is  the  earliest 
account  we  have  of  a  typical  Assyrian  monarch,  such  as 
those  who,  in  later  times,  captured  Samaria  and  besieged 
Jerusalem,  and  whose  characters  are  so  vividly  drawn 
for  us  by  the  Hebrew  writers.  His  activit}^  alike 
in  war  and  in  peace ;  his  desolating  campaigns,  during 
which  the  countries  that  he  invaded  were  swept  as  if  by 
a  tempest,  and  their  inhabitants  and  their  treasures 
were  carried  off;  and,  in  peace,  his  employment  of  his 
resources  in  erecting  great  palaces  of  brickwork  and 
cedar,  and  lofty  temples  partly  overlaid  with  gold  and 
silver ;  the  obedience  that  he  claimed,  and  the  tribute 
that  he  exacted — all  correspond  exactly  to  the  pictures 
presented  by  the  prophets  and  historians  of  Judah.  The 
latter  refer,  however,  to  the  later  kings — the  successors 
of  Tiglath-Pileser  I. — who,  as  we  shall  see,  closely  re- 
sembled him  in  their  character  and  policy. 

Among  this  monarch's  successors,  the  first  who 
equalled  him  in  power  and  activity,  so  far  as  our  infor- 
mation allows  us  to  judge,  was  Ashur-nasir-pal,  who 
reigned  from  B.C.  885  to  B.C.  860.  The  capital  city  of 
Tiglath-Pileser  was  Ashur,  now  represented  by  the  ruins 
of  Kalah-Sherkat,  on  the  Tigris,  some  distance  south  of 
Nineveh ;  it  was  amongst  these  ruins  that  his  records 
were  found.  The  capital  of  Ashur-nasir-pal,  on  the 
other  Land,  was  Calah,*  five  hours'  journey  south  of 
Nineveh,  but  considerably  to  the  north  of  Ashur.  The 

*  The  modern  Niinroud;  see  pp.  45,  116. 


364  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

empire  of  the  last-named  monarch  extended  from  the 
Mediterranean,  on  the  west,  to  the  lake  now  called 
Urumiah,  on  the  east ;  and  from  Mount  Ararat  and  the 
Upper  Euphrates,  on  the  north,  to  the  Lower  Zab,  on  the 
south.  This  is  a  smaller  extent  of  territory  than  that 
which  was  included  in  the  conquests  of  Tiglath-Pileser 
I.,  or  in  the  empire  of  later  rnonarchs.  The  campaigns 
of  Ashur-nasir-pal,  however,  were  as  numerous  as  those 
of  his  great  predecessor.  Commagene  was  again  in- 
vaded, for  the  purpose  of  receiving  the  tribute  of  that 
country,  consisting  of  copper  vessels,  sheep,  oxen,  and 
wine.  While  the  Assyrians  were  still  in  Commagene, 
news  was  brought  to  them  of  the  rebellion  of  a  town 
named  Suru,  where  a  leader  of  unknown  extraction  had 
been  placed  upon  the  throne,  and  had  renounced  his 
allegiance  to  the  Assyrian  king.  Ashur-nasir-pal  at 
once  marched  upon  the  rebellious  city,  and  although 
the  chief  men  came  out  to  meet  him  and  to  beg  for  their 
lives,  he  gave  the  place  up  to  plunder.  All  the  treasures 
that  could  be  collected  from  the  palace  and  temple  were 
seized  :  they  consisted  of  a  store  of  gold  and  silver,  lead 
and  iron,  of  a  great  number  of  copper  vessels,  of 
chariots  and  horses,  garments  of  blue  and  scarlet,  cedar 
panels,  and  other  objects  of  Oriental  luxury.  The  women 
and  children  were  carried  off  as  slaves.  The  rebels  were 
punished  with  the  greatest  cruelties ;  many  were  flayed 
alive,  others  were  impaled.  The  insurgent  leader,  who 
had  made  himself  king,  was  carried  to  Nineveh,  where 
he  was  flayed  alive"  and  his  skill  exposed  upon  the  city 
walls, 


THE   ASSYRIANS   AS    CONQUERORS.  365 

Not  long  afterwards,  Ashur-nasir-pal  advanced  to  the 
sources  of  the  River  Subnat,  the  scene  of  former  victo- 
ries of  Tiglath-Pileser  I.  Here  the  last-named  prince 
had  erected  his  own  image,  as  a  visible  token  of  his 
supremacy,  according  to  a  common  custom  of  the 
Assyrian  monarchs.  Ashur-uasir-pal  set  up  a  figure 
of  himself  in  the  same  way  beside  that  of  Tiglath- 
Pileser,  and  subsequently  he  received  the  tribute  of 
the  country.  Certain  parts  of  the  territory,  however, 
refused  to  submit  to  him,  and  he  inflicted  a  terrible 
punishment  upon  them  for  their  insubordination.  Many 
cities  were  taken  and  ravaged,  and  the  capture  of  the 
city  of  Tila  is  described  by  the  Assyrian  annalist  in  the 
following  terms,  in  which,  according  to  the  invariable 
custom,  the  king  is  represented  as  relating  his  own 
deeds  :  — 

"  I  approached  the  city  of  Tila.  The  city  was  very  strong,  sur- 
rounded by  three  walls ;  the  inhabitants  trusted  in  their  strong 
walls  and  their  numberless  troops,  and  did  not  come  out  to  embrace 
my  feet.  I  stormed  the  city  with  battle  and  slaughter,  and  I  took 
it.  Three  thousand  warriors  I  laid  low  with  my  weapons.  I  carried 
off  the  spoils,  the  goods  of  the  people,  their  sheep  and  their  oxen. 
Many  of  those  that  were  taken  captive  I  burned  with  fire.  Many  I 
took  alive,  and  cut  off  their  hands,  their  noses,  and  their  ears ;  I  put 
out  the  eyes  of  many.  I  erected  a  pile  of  living  bodies  and  another 
pile  of  heads.  Their  youths  and  maidens  I  burned  in  the  fire.  I 
ravaged  and  laid  waste  the  city,  burnt  it  with  fire,  and  destroyed  it. 
Then  I  ravaged  the  cities  of  Nirbi,  and  threw  down  their  strong 
walls ;  I  destroyed  the  cities,  and  burned  them  with  fire." 

This  is  only  one  instance  of  the  destruction  wrought 
by  Ashur-nasir-pal  upon  the  cities  that  refused  to 
pay  him  tribute  or  acknowledge  his  supremacy.  He 


366  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

describes  many  other  sieges  and  captures  in  almost  iden- 
tical terms  in  the  course  of  his  annals — not  omitting  to 

O 

mention,  with  a  certain  horrible  complacency,  the  tor- 
tures that  he  inflicted  on  the  unfortunate  inhabitants, 
who,  trusting  in  their  own  strength,  had  dared  to  dis- 
pute the  sovereignty  of  the  gods  of  Assyria,  and  had 
neglected  to  send  the  gifts  required  of  them. 

After  a  succession  of  conquests,  Ashur-nasir-pal 
restored  the  city  of  Calali,  where  he  founded  a  temple 
in  honour  of  the  god  Ninib.  In  the  sixth  year  of  his 
reign  he  matched  forth  again  at  the  head  of  his  troops, 
to  collect  the  tribute  of  the  surrounding  countries. 
Among  the  countries  that  he  invaded  was  the  land  of 
the  Hittites.  He  advanced  to  their  capital,  Carchemish, 
and  received  at  their  hands  tribute,  consisting  of  gold 
and  silver,  a  store  of  copper  vessels,  rich  garments,  ivory, 
and  chariots.  All  the  kings  of  the  country  came  and 
kissed  his  feet  in  token  of  submission,  and  he  received 
hostages  from  them  as  guarantees  of  their  fidelity. 

After  his  triumphal  passage  through  the  land  of  the 
Hittites,  Ashur-nasir-pal  crossed  the  Orontes,  and  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  Here 
he  cleansed  his  weapons  in  the  waters  of  the  Great 
Sea,  and  offered  sacrifice  to  the  gods.  The  kings  of  the 
Phoenician  States  along  the  coast  came  and  brought 
him  tribute ;  among  them,  the  kings  of  Tyre,  Sidon, 
Gebal  or  Byblus,  Arvad  or  Aradus,  offered  him  gold, 
silver,  copper,  linen  garments,  precious  woods,  and 
other  valuable  gifts.  During  his  stay  in  Pho3nicia, 
Ashur-nasir-pal  caused  a  supply  of  cedar- wood  to  be  cut 


THE    ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS.  367 

down  on  the  mountains  of  Amanus,  that  he  might  take 
it  back  with  him  to  Assyria,  to  serve  in  the  construction 
of  his  palaces  and  temples. 

The  newly-restored  city  of  Calah  was  peopled  with 
the  inhabitants  of  the  various  countries  overrun  by 
Aslmr-nasir-pal  in  the  course  of  his  campaigns,  whom 
lie  had  deported  into  Assyria  from  their  own  native 
lands  ;  exactly  as  Sargou  peopled  Samaria  with  Baby- 
lonians and  Hittites.  A  new  canal  was  dug  to  bring 
water  through  the  town  from  the  Upper  Zab,  and  the 
neighbourhood  was  planted  with  gardens. 

The  following  is  the  inscription  upon  the  stela 
bearing  the  image  of  this  powerful  and  ruthless  con- 
queror, this  typical  Assyrian  prince,  which  was  found 
amoDg  the  remains  of  his  palace  at  Calah  : — 

"  Ashurnasirpal,  the  great  king,  the  mighty  king,  the  king  of 
hosts,  the  king  of  Assyria,  son  of  Tukulti-Ninib,  the  great  king,  the 
mighty  king,  the  king  of  hosts,  the  king  of  Assyria,  who  was 
son  of  Ramman-nirari,  the  great  king,  the  mighty  king,  the  king 
of  hosts,  the  king  of  Assyria.  Ashurnasirpal  conquered  the  lands 
from  the  river  Tigris  to  the  Lebanon,  and  to  the  Great  Sea;  he 
subdued  under  his  feet  all  the  lands  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the 
setting  of  the  sun." 

The  son  of  Ashur-nasir-pal  was  named  Shalmaneser, 
and  was  the  second  of  the  name.  He  reigned  from  B.C. 
860  to.  B.C.  825,  and  equalled  or  surpassed  his  father  in 
the  extent  of  his  conquests.  The  very  first  of  his  expe- 
ditions was  directed  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean, 
where,  like  his  father,  he  dipped  his  weapons  in  the 
sea,  according  to  some  religious  rite,  the  meaning  of 
which  is  not  further  explained,  and  lie  offered  sacrifice 


368  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

to  the  gods ;  after  which  he  proceeded  to  carry  out  that 
which  was,  doubtless,  the  chief  object  of  the  expedition, 
and  caused  his  troops  to  cut  down  a  supply  of  cedars 
and  cypresses  upon  the  sides  of  Mount  Amanus.  The 
following  campaigns  of  Shalmaneser  led  him  to  the 
regions  of  Armenia,  and  afterwards  to  Babylonia,  where 
the  king,  Marduk-nadin-shum,  had  been  overthrown  by 
his  own  brother,  and  had  sent  to  Assyria  for  help. 
The  assistance  of  the  powerful  armies  of  the  northern 
kingdom  soon  restored  Marduk-nadin-shum  to  his 
throne.  The  Assyrian  records  speak  with  much  rever- 
ence of  the  ancient  Babylonian  temples  which  were 
visited  by  Shalmaneser,  who  there  offered  rich  sacrifices 
to  the  gods.  In  the  city  of  Babylon — "  the  bolt  which 
fastens  heaven  and  earth  together,  the  seat  of  life  " — the 
Assyrian  monarch  paid  his  devotions  to  the  great  god 
Bel,  in  the  Temple  of  Bit-Saggil ;  and  in  Borsippa  he 
presented  his  gifts  to  Nebo,  in  the  sanctuary  of  Bit- 
Zida.  The  result  of  this  Chaldaian  campaign  was,  of 
course,  that  the  country  became  tributary  to  its  mighty 
neighbour,  and  the  Babylonian  princes  were  forced  to 
send  their  gifts  to  Assyria. 

In  the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign,  Shalmaneser 
carried  his  conquests  to  districts  of  Phoenicia  and  Syria 
that  had  not  for  many  centuries  lain  under  the  Assyrian 
yoke.  He  crossed  the  Euphrates  for  the  ninth  time, 
and  marched  into  the  land  of  the  Hittites,  where  he 
subdued  no  less  than  eighty-nine  cities.  Ashur-nasir-pal 
had  received  tribute  from  Tyre  and  Sidon ;  but  his  son 
went  as  far  south  as  Damascus  and  vanquished  Hadade- 


THE    ASSYRIANS   AS    CONQUERORS.  369 

zer,*  a  Syrian  king  of  the  same  name  as  lie  who  had 
formerly  fought  with  David.  Hadadezer  allied  himself 
with  twelve  kings  of  Syria,  including  Ahab,  king  of 
Israel,  in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  resist  the  Assyrian 
forces  by  the  union  of  their  armies  with  his  own  ;  but 
they  were,  nevertheless,  put  to  flight.  Some  years  later, 
Shalmaneser  overcame  Hazael,  King  of  Damascus,  who 
had  made  a  fresh  attempt  to  oppose  the  Assyrian 
conquests.  During  this  expedition  tribute  was  sent  to 
Shalmaneser,  not  only  by  the  princes  of  Tyre  and  Sidon, 
but  also  by  Jehu,  King  of  Israel. 

Shalmaneser  II.  was  the  first  Assyrian  king  who 
conquered  parts  of  Cilicia,  and  who  advanced  far  into 
Armenia,  and  beyond  Lake  Urumiah,  into  regions  that 
now  form  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Persia.  During  every 
year  of  his  reign  he  seems  to  have  sent  out  a  military 
expedition  into  some  of  the  surrounding  territories,  for 
the  purpose  of  enforcing  the  payment  of  tribute,  or 
of  chastising  those  princes  who  dared  to  resist  his 
supremacy.  But,  of  course,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  that  he  always  went  in  person  at  the  head 
of  his  troops ;  it  was  the  flattery  of  the  court  annalists, 
which  represented  all  the  deeds  of  the  Assyrian  armies 
as  the  exploits  of  the  monarch  himself:  just  as  the 
king,  in  his  turn,  attributes  his  successes  to  the  assist- 
ance of  the  national  divinities. 

We  do  not  hear  so  much  in  the  annals  of  Shalma- 
neser of  the  cruelties  which  accompanied  the  Assyrian 
conquests  ;  but  we  have  an  actual  representation  of 

*  Called  Beiihadad  in  the  Book  of  Kings. 
Y 


370  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

some  of  them  in  the  bus- reliefs  upon  the  bronze  bands, 
now  in  the  British  Museum,  which  formerly  decorated 
the  gates  of  the  temple  at  Imgur-Bel,  the  modern 
Balawat.  We  there  see  living  captives  impaled  upon 
stakes  outside  the  walls  of  the  captured  cities ;  and  in 
other  places  the  Assyrian  executioner  is  seen  in  the 
act  of  hewing  off  the  hands  and  feet  of  unfortunate 
prisoners,  and  making  a  pile  of  these  ghastly  trophies. 

Shalmaneser  II.  was  succeeded  upon  the  throne  of 
Assyria  by  his  son,  Shamshi-Kamman  (B.C.  825-812). 
The  first  campaign  of  this  prince  was  undertaken 
against  Armenia.  It  would  seem  that  the  supremacy 
of  the  foreign  suzerain  never  remained  long  undisputed 
in  the  tributary  States :  it  was  necessary  for  the  kings 
of  Assyria  to  be  constantly  making  fresh  expeditions 
into  the  countries  that  they  had  already  overrun ;  other- 
wise, the  supply  of  tributary  gifts  soon  fell  off,  and  the 
conquered  princes  of  Syria  and  Armenia  soon  began  to 
make  alliances  with  one  another  against  the  hated 
tyrant  from  the  Tigris.  Accordingly,  Shamshi-Ramman 
was  obliged  to  undertake  a  series  of  campaigns  into  the 
very  territories  that  his  father  had  subdued  before  him. 

The  second  expedition  of  this  monarch's  reign  was- 
not  undertaken  by  him  in  person,  as  the  annalist  ex- 
pressly tells  us  ;  but  the  Eabshak  was  sent  at  the  head 
of  the  troops  into  Armenia,  as  the  Rabshak  of  Sen- 
nacherib was  sent  to  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  in  the 
days  of  Hezekiah. 

The  fourth  campaign  of  the  king  whose  reign 
we  are  now  considering  led  him  to  the  conquest  of 


THE    ASSYRIANS   AS    CONQUERORS.  371 

Babylonia,  whence  he  carried  off  immense  booty  and 
thousands  of  captives.  Of  the  royal  city  of  one  of  the 
Chaldsean  princes  the  records  speak  as  follows  :— 

"  I  captured  that  city  in  the  course  of  my  expedition.  I  laid 
thirteen  thousand  of  the  warriors  low  with  my  weapons,  and  made 
their  blood  flow  like  water  through  the  streets ;  I  piled  up  their 
corpses  into  heaps.  Three  thousand  men  I  took  alive.  I  carried  off 
from  that  city  the  royal  bed,  the  royal  couch,  the  treasures  of  the 
palace,  the  women,  the  goods  and  furniture  in  unnumbered  quantities. 
I  laid  waste,  destroyed,  and  burnt  that  city." 

The  next  king  of  Assyria,  Ramman-nirari  III.  (B.C. 
812-783),  extended  the  Assyrian  Empire  even  further 
than  his  father  and  predecessor.  His  titles  run  as 
follows  upon  a  stone  tablet  from  his  palace  at  Calah : — 

"  Ramman-nirari,  the  great  king,  the  mighty  king,  the  king  of 
hosts,  the  king  of  Assyria,  who  was  called  in  his  childhood  by  the 
god  Ashur  king  of  the  heavenly  spirits,  and  endowed  with  an 
empire  that  has  no  equal.  From  the  Great  Sea  of  the  rising  of  the 
sun  to  the  Great  Sea  of  the  setting  of  the  sun,  his  hand  has 
conquered  and  subdued  all  the  regions." 

On  another  tablet  which  was  formerly  placed  on  the 
walls  of  the  same  palace  the  conquests  of  Ramman- 
nirari  are  thus  enumerated  : — 

"  Beyond  the  Euphrates,  I  subdued  under  my  feet  the  land  of 
the  Hittites,  the  whole  of  the  land  of  the  Amorites,  Tyre,  Sidon,  the 
land  of  Omri  [that  is,  the  kingdom  of  Samaria],  Edom,  Philistia,  as 
far  as  the  Great  Sea  of  the  setting  of  the  sun,  and  I  imposed  tribute 
upon  them.  I  marched  against  the  territory  of  Damascus,  and  shut 
up  Mari,  the  king,  in  Damascus,  his  royal  city.  The  fear  of  the 
glory  of  Ashur,  his  lord,  overcame  him,  and  he  embraced  my  feet 
and  submitted  to  me.  I  captured  in  his  palace  in  Damascus  2,300 
talents  of  silver,  20  talents  of  gold,  3,000  talents  of  copper,  5,000 

Y    2 


372  NEW    LIGHT   ON   THE    BIBLE. 

talents  of  iion,  garments  of  many  colours,  linen,  a  bed  of  ivory,  a 
couch  inlaid  with  ivory,  and  his  goods  and  furniture  in  unnumbered 
quantities." 

In  the  same  way,  the  Chaldsean  princes  sent  their 
gifts  to  Eamman-nirari,  especially  from  Babylon,  Bor- 
sippa,  and  Cutha.  The  empire  of  this  prince  seems 
to  have  comprised  all  that  is  now  called  Turkey  in  Asia, 
outside  the  limits  of  Anatolia,  and  even  parts  of  the 
latter  province  and  of  the  western  regions  of  Persia. 
Soon  after  the  death  of  Eamman-nirari,  the  throne  of 
Assyria  was  ascended  by  Tiglath-Pileser  III.  (B.C.  745- 
727),  whose  Babylonian  name  of  Pul  has  been  discussed 
in  a  former  chapter.  This  is  the  first  Assyrian  in- 
vader of  the  Syrian  principalities  who  is  mentioned 
by  name  in  the  Bible.  The  reign  of  this  prince 
was  taken  up,  like  those  of  his  predecessors,  with  a 
series  of  military  expeditions  for  the  enforcement  of 
tribute  and  the  punishment  of  rebellious  princes,  but 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  enlarged  the  boundaries  of  his 
empire  beyond  those  fixed  by  Eamman-nirari.  He  was 
accepted  by  the  Babylonians  as  their  king,  as  the  royal 
lists  tell  us,  and  as  he  tells  us  himself,  thus : — 

"  In  Sippara,  Nipur,  Babylon,  Borsippa,  Cutha,  Kish,  Dilbat, 
and  Erech,  tlie  cities  that  have  no  equal,  I  offered  pure  sacrifices  to 
Bel,  to  Zirbanit,  to  Nebo,  to  Tashmit,  to  Nergal,  the  great  gods,  my 
lords,  and  they  accepted  my  priestly  ministrations.  I  subdued  the 
broad  lands  of  Babylonia,  and  exercised  kingly  authority  over  them." 

Among  the  names  of  the  princes  who  paid  tribute 
to  Tiglath-Pileser  in  the  latter  part  of  his  reign,  we 
read  those  of  rulers  of  Commagene,  of  Hamath,  of 


THE   ASSYRIANS    AS   CONQUERORS.  373 

Byblus,  of  Cappadocia,  of  Aradus,  of  Ammon,  of  Moab, 
of  Ascalon,  of  Edom,  of  Gaza,  and — more  interesting  to 
us — of  Ahaz,  King  of  Judah.  The  predecessor  of  Ahaz, 
however — Azariah,  or  Uzziah — was  powerful  or  for- 
tunate enough  to  remain  independent  of  the  Assyrians  ; 
some  of  his  allies  were  subdued,  but  not  himself  : — 

"  Cities  that  by  their  sin  had  allied  themselves  with  Azariah  I 
brought  back  to  the  dominion  of  Assyria,  and  placed  my  officers  in 
them  as  governors." 

Menaliem,  King  of  Israel,  on  the  other  hand,  the  con- 
temporary of  Azariah,  was  reckoned  among  the  tributa- 
ries of  Tiglath-Pileser,  together  with  Resin,  King  of 
Syria. 

A-t  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Tiglath-Pileser,  he  caused 
Pekah,  the  usurping  king  of  Israel,  to  be  put  to  death, 
and  raised  Hoshea,  his  tributary,  to  the  throne  of  Sa- 
maria. At  the  same  time  he  carried  off  a  large  number 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel  into  cap- 
tivity. He  tells  us  himself : — 

"  As  for  the  land  of  the  House  of  Omri  [that  is,  Samaria]  .  .  . 
a  multitude  of  its  inhabitants,  together  with  their  possessions,  I 
carried  away  to  Assyria.  I  slew  Pekah,  their  king;  I  placed  Hoshea 
over  them  [as  king]." 

Very  soon  after  the  establishment  of  Hoshea  upon 
the  throne  of  Israel,  Tiglath-Pileser  died,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Shalmaneser  IV.  (727-722),  who,  on  account 
of  the  unfaithfulness  of  Hoshea  and  his  intrigues  with 
Egypt,  caused  the  Assyrian  armies  to  besiege  Samaria. 
Before  the  siege  had  been  brought  to  an  issue,  however, 
Shalraaneser — of  whose  wars  we  do  Rot  possess  any 


374  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

records  in  his  native  language — died,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Sargon,  so  that  Samaria  was  actually  taken  in  the 
reign  of  the  latter  king. 

Sargon  was  the  greatest  of  the  Assyrian  conquerors 
that  had  yet  appeared.  He  seems  to  have  ascended 
the  throne  through  a  revolution,  and  not  to  have  been 
connected  with  the  former  royal  house.  In  the  first 
year  of  his  reign  Samaria  was  taken,  and  the  kingdom 
of  Israel  was  destroyed.  During  the  subsequent  wars 
of  Sargon  this  great  conqueror  overran  Babylonia,  Elam, 
the  northern  parts  of  Arabia,  Armenia,  Commagene, 
Syria,  and  the  land  of  the  Hittites,  and  the  country  of 
the  Philistines  to  the  borders  of  Egypt.  Many  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  conquered  cities  were  deported  into 
other  countries :  the  native  annals  tell  us  that  certain 
Arab  tribes  were  settled  by  Sargon  in  Samaria,  exactly 
as,  according  to  the  Book  of  Kings,  he  settled  a  colony 
of  Babylonians  in  the  same  district.  Other  tribes  were 
planted  in  other  parts  of  Syria.  He  says  : — 

"I  carried  away  the  inhabitants  of  Sukkia,  Bala,  Abitikna, 
Pappa,  and  Lallukna  from  their  native  country,  and  I  settled  them 
in  Damascus  and  the  land  of  the  Hittites." 

In  the  same  way,  when  Sargon  had  vanquished  the 
people  of  Commagene,  north  of  Syria,  he  carried  them 
away  to  Assyria,  and  colonised  their  country  with  fresh 
inhabitants.  The  record  tells  us : — 

"  Mutallu  of  Commagene,  a  wicked  man,  without  reverence  for 
the  name  of  the  gods,  who  planned  wickedness  and  counselled  ini- 
quity, placed  his  trust  in  Argisti,  king  of  Ararat,  a  helper  who  could 
not  save  him ;  he  neglected  to  pay  the  yearly  tribute,  and  refused  to 


THE    ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS.  375 

send  his  gifts.  In  the  wrath  of  my  heart,  I  advanced  against  him 
with  my  chariots  and  horsemen.  He  saw  my  army  approach,  and 
abandoned  his  city,  and  was  no  more  seen.  I  besieged  and  took  that 
city,  and  sixty-two  other  strong  cities  in  his  country.  I  carried 
away  his  wife,  his  children,  his  possessions,  and  the  treasures  of  his 
palace,  together  with  the  people  of  his  land.  I  did  not  leave  one 
behind.  I  peopled  that  country  afresh,  and  caused  the  natives  of 
Babylonia,  whom  I  had  taken  captive,  to  dwell  in  it.  I  placed  my 
officer  as  governor  over  them,  and  laid  the  yoke  of  my  rule  upon 
them." 

It  was  thus  the  general  policy  of  Sargon — perhaps  to 
a  greater  extent  than  of  his  predecessors — to  carry  off 
the  inhabitants  of  a  conquered  city  or  district,  and  to 
people  it  afresh  with  captives  from  other  regions. 
During  the  latter  part  of  his  reign  Sargon  was  recog- 
nised by  the  Babylonians  as  their  legitimate  king ;  he 
was  allowed  to  "  take  the  hands  of  Merodach  "  according 
to  the  priestly  rite,  and  he  made  rich  offerings  to  the 
gods,  including  154  talents  of  gold  and  1,604  talents 
of  silver.  This  secured  him  from  rebellion  during  the 
rest  of  his  reign  ;  but  as  soon  as  his  son,  Sennacherib, 
ascended  the  throne  of  Assyria,  the  claims  of  the  latter 
were  disputed  in  the  southern  kingdom. 

The  reign  of  Sennacherib  was  occupied  with  a  series 
of  campaigns  like  those  of  his  predecessors.  First  of  all, 
he  was  engaged  in  fighting  with  Merodach-baladan  in 
Babylonia.  Then  he  overran  the  highlands  of  Elam. 
His  third  campaign  drew  him  to  the  land  of  the  west — 
to  the  land  of  the  Hittites  and  the  Phoenician  sea-coast. 
At  the  news  of  Sennacherib's  approach,  Luli,  or  Elulseus, 
King  of  Sidon,  fled  beyond  the  sea  to  the  island  of 
Cyprus.  After  receiving  the  submission  and  tribute  of 


376  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

the  principal  cities  of  Phoenicia,  Sennacherib  laid  siege 
to  Ekron,  the  king  of  which,  Padi,  who  had  acknow- 
ledged the  supremacy  of  Assyria,  had  been  imprisoned 
by  Hezckiah  in  Jerusalem,  whither  he  had  been  sent  in 
chains  by  the  chief  men  of  Ekron,  who  were  desirous  of 
breaking  away  from  the  Assyrian  yoke.  In  thus  rebel- 
ling against  the  all-powerful  suzerain,  the  men  of  Ekron 
relied  upon  the  help  of  Egypt ;  but  this  did  not  avail 
them,  and  the  annals  of  Sennacherib  describe  their  defeat 
thus : — 

"  The  chief  men,  the  officers,  and  the  other  inhabitants  of  Ekron, 
had  thrown  Padi,  who  was  their  king  according  to  the  laws  and 
decrees  of  Assyria,  into  iron  fetters,  and  had  given  him  up,  with 
hostile  purposes,  to  Hezekiah  the  Jew,  who  threw  him  into  prison. 
But  their  hearts  began  to  fear.  The  princes  of  Egypt  assembled  the 
bowmen,  chariots,  and  horses  of  the  King  of  Ethiopia,  a  numberless 
host,  and  came  to  the  help  of  the  Ekronites.  They  drew  up  their 
battle  array  against  me  before  Elthekeh,  and  raised  their  swords. 
Trusting  in  the  god  Ashur,  my  lord,  I  fought  with  them,  and  inflicted 
a  defeat  upon  them.  I  took  with  my  own  hand  the  commander  of 
the  chariots  and  the  sons  of  one  of  the  princes  of  Egypt,  as  well  as 
the  commander  of  the  chariots  of  the  King  of  Ethiopia.  I  besieged 
Elthekeh  and  Timnath ;  I  captured  them,  and  carried  their  booty  away. 

"  Then  I  returned  to  Ekron.  I  slew  the  chief  men  and  officers, 
who  had  committed  sin  against  me,  and  I  bound  their  corpses  on 
stakes  around  the  city.  I  carried  away  into  captivity  those  inhabi- 
tants of  the  city  who  had  committed  sins  and  iniquities  against  me  ; 
to  the  others  who  had  committed  no  sin  I  spoke  words  of  favour.  I 
caused  Padi,  their  king,  to  come  out  of  Jerusalem,  and  to  sit  again 
upon  the  throne  of  their  kingdom.  I  laid  upon  him  the  tribute  due 
to  my  supremacy. 

"  As  for  Hezekiah  the  Jew,  who  had  not  submitted  to  my  yoke, 
I  besieged  forty-six  of  his  strong  cities,  and  small  towns  without 
number.  ...  I  brought  out  200,150  of  the  inhabitants,  young 
and  old,  male  and  female,  together  with  horses,  mules,  asses,  camels, 


THE    ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS.  377 

sheep,  and  oxen,  and  I  counted  them  as  my  booty.  Hezekiah  him- 
self I  shut  up,  like  a  caged  bird,  in  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  his  king- 
dom. I  fortified  the  strongholds  against  him,  and  caused  those  who 
came  out  of  the  gates  of  his  city  to  turn  back.  I  took  the  cities 
which  I  had  plundered  away  from  his  land,  and  gave  them  to 
Mitintu,  King  of  Ashdod,  Padi,  King  of  Ekron,  and  the  King  of  Gaza. 
To  the  former  tribute  I  added  the  tribute  which  was  due  to  my 
supremacy,  and  laid  it  upon  him.  .  .  .  Besides  30  talents  of 
gold  and  800  talents  of  silver,  I  caused  precious  stones,  ivory  couches, 
precious  woods,  a  vast  store,  and  his  daughters  and  his  slaves  to  be 
brought  after  me  to  Nineveh,  the  city  of  my  kingdom ;  and  he  sent 
his  officer  to  offer  tribute  and  to  pay  submission." 

The  last  words  remind  us  that  the  capital  of  Assyria 
was  now  Nineveh.  Sargon,  the  father  of  Sennacherib, 
had  removed  his  royal  residence  from  Calah  to  the 
newly-founded  fortress  of  Dur-Sharrukin,  or  the  "  Fort 
of  Sargon,"  now  Khorsabad.  Sennacherib,  however, 
built  a  vast  palace  at  Nineveh,  and  made  this  town  his 
residence.  We  must  remember,  however,  that  Dur- 
Sharrukin  and  Calah  were  both  very  near  to  Nineveh, 
and  were  probably  included  in  a  thickly-populated  dis- 
trict often  called  "  the  Great  City  of  Nineveh."  It  is 
a  common  custom  in  the  East,  and  has  always  been  so, 
that  each  king  should  build  a  house  for  himself,  al- 
though in  Assyria  and  Babylonia  this  habit  was  united 
with  a  respect  for  the  buildings  of  former  kings,  which 
were  constantly  restored  by  their  successors. 

In  B.C.  699,  Sennacherib  made  war  fora  second  time 
upon  the  Babylonians,  who  would  not  accept  his  rule ; 
and  this  time,  after  putting  the  native  leaders  to  flight, 
he  set  his  own  son,  Ashur-nadin-shum,  upon  the  throne 
of  Chaldsa.  This  prince  reigned  for  six  years. 


378  NEW   LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Some  of  the  Babylonians,  however,  rather  than  sub- 
mit to  an  Assyrian  ruler,  fled  across  the  Persian  Gulf  to 
a  city  on  the  coast  of  Elam.  Sennacherib  pursued  them 
with  ships  brought  from  the  land  of  Syria  for  that  pur- 
pose ;  for  Babylonia  did  not  produce  timber  enough  for 
the  building  of  a  navy,  and  hence,  in  later  times,  Alex- 
ander, as  we  have  seen  above,*  had  to  send  to  Phoenicia 
when  he  thought  of  establishing  a  navy  in  the  Persian 
Gulf. 

In  spite  of  Sennacherib's  chastisement  of  these  rebels, 
the  native  movement  was  too  strong  for  him.  His  son, 
whom  he  had  made  King  of  Babylon,  was  captured,  with 
the  help  of  the  Elamites,  and  carried  into  captivity  in 
Elam.  The  King  of  Elam  supported  the  Babylonians  in 
setting  Nergal-ushezib,  a  native  prince,  upon  the  throne  ; 
the  latter,  however,  after  a  short  reign  of  one  year  and 
a  half,  was  vanquished  by  the  Assyrians  and  carried  off 
into  captivity.  Yet  Sennacherib  did  not  even  now  suc- 
ceed in  imposing  his  authority  upon  this  rebellious 
nation,  supported  as  they  were  by  those  ancient  enemies 
of  Assyria,  the  Elamites.  The  successor  of  Nergal- 
ushezib  was  another  native  prince,  Mushezib-Marduk, 
called  Mesesimordacus  in  the  Canon  of  Ptolemy — a 
name  which  means  "  Merodach  is  my  saviour."  After 
the  four  years'  reign  of  this  monarch  there  was  a  period 
of  anarchy  in  Babylonia,  similar  to  that  which  occurred 
at  the  beginning  of  Sennacherib's  reign,  although,  per- 
haps, in  both  periods  many  of  the  inhabitants  acknow- 
ledged the  authority  of  Sennacherib,  which  he  certainly 

*  See  above,  p.  312. 


THE    ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS.  379 

asserted.  But  during  the  last  five  years  of  his  reign  he 
rested  from  the  labours  of  war  and  engaged  in  those  of 
peace — namely,  in  the  building  of  palaces  and  temples. 

In  B.C.  681  Sennacherib  was  murdered  in  the 
course  of  an  insurrection ;  and  when  tranquillity  was 
at  length  restored  and  tlie  murderers  had  fled,  his  sou, 
Esarhaddon,  succeeded  him.  The  first  task  of  the  new 
monarch  was  to  invade  Babylonia,  where  he  set  the 
kingdom  in  order,  and  was  universally  recoguised  as 
king ;  he  gained  the  support  of  the  priests  by  offering 
large  gifts  to  the  gods  and  decorating  their  temples ; 
and  he  re-built  the  walls  of  Babylon.  Esarhaddon 
deprived  the  Babylonians  of  the  support  of  their  chief 
allies  by  inflicting  a  severe  defeat  upon  the  Elamites, 
and  putting  their  king  to  death.  The  reign  of  Esar- 
haddon was  occupied  with  a  series  of  campaigns  like 
those  of  his  predecessor,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
overran  his  extensive  empire,  and  enforced  the  payment 
of  tribute  and  the  recognition  of  his  supremacy.  The 
Assyrian  annalist  gives  us  a  long  list  of  Syrian  and 
Cypriote  princes  who  paid  tribute  to  Esarhaddon. 
Besides  Manasseh,  King  of  Judah,  the  list  includes 
the  names  of  the  Kings  of  Tyre,  Edom,  Moab,  Gaza, 
Ascalon,  Ekron,  Byblus  or  Gebal,  Arvad,  Ashdod  ;  and 
those  of  Paphos,  Idalium,  and  eight  other  cities  in  the 
island  of  Cyprus.  But  Esarhaddon  extended  the  limits 
of  his  empire  in  one  direction  beyond  those  reached 
by  his  predecessors,  for  he  invaded  Egypt,  now 
governed  by  the  Ethiopian  dynasty,  and  subdued  that 
country  under  the  power  of  Assyria.  The  Assyrian 


380  NEW   LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

supremacy  over  Egypt  lasted  under  part  of  the  next 
reign — that  of  Ashur-bani-pal,  or  Sardanapalus — and 
then  ceased  ;  only  it  appears  from  the  writings-  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets  and  of  Berosus  that  Nebuchadnezzar, 
who,  at  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  before  Christ,- 
succeeded  to  the  empire  of  the  Assyrian  monarchs, 
invaded  Egypt  with  success  in  the  course  of  his  reign.* 

Esarhaddon  had  set  up  a  number  of  princes  in 
Egypt,  as  representatives  of  the  Assyrian  power,  and 
the  first  expedition  of  his  son  and  successor,  Sardana- 
palus, was  undertaken  in  order  to  defend  these  servants 
of  his  against  the  attack  of  the  Ethiopian  king, 
Tirhakah,  who  had  proved  unfaithful  to  his  suzerain. 
The  campaign  was  successful ;  the  army  of  Tirhakah 
was  defeated  before  Memphis,  and  this  prince  fled 
from  Memphis  to  Thebes.  The  governors  appointed  by 
Esarhaddon  were  restored  to  their  posts,  among  them 
being  Necho,  prince  of  Memphis,  of  the  same  name  as 
the  Pharaoh-nechoh  who  invaded  Syria  in  the  reign  of 
Josiah,  and  slew  the  latter  king  at  Megiddo.f 

This  was  not  the  only  campaign  of  Sardanapalus 
in  Egypt.  He  undertook  a  second  campaign  against 
Urdamani,  son  of  that  So,  or  Sabaco,  who  had  supported 
the  Philistines  against  Assyria  in  the  reign  of  Sargon.| 
1 1  was  during  this  war  that  the  plunder  of  No,  or 
Yiiehes,  took  place,  which  is  alluded  to  by  the  prophet 
NT;ihum.  Seven  campaigns  of  Sardanapalus  are  de- 
^c.ibed  in  his  re-cords  as  undertaken  during  his  reign 
of  lorty-two  years.  Besides  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  he 

*  See  above,  p.  351,  note,      f  2  Kings  xxiii.  29.      J  See  above,  p.  341. 


THE  ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS.  381 

subdued  the  Elamites,  and  placed  over  them  a  prince  of 
his  own  choosing ;  he  conquered  some  of  the  tribes  in 
Northern  Arabia,  and  he  vanquished  and  put  to  deatli 
his  own  brother,  Shamash-shum-ukin  (in  Greek,  Saos- 
duchinos,  or  Sammuges),  who  had  been  placed  on  the 
throne  of  Babylon  by  the  will  of  his  father,  Esar- 
haddon  ;  in  the  west  he  vanquished  the  Phoenicians 
and  some  of  the  nations  of  Asia  Minor.  Many  of  the 
natives  of  the  conquered  countries  were  carried  away 
to  Assyria  or  to  other  countries,  where  they  replaced 
the  former  inhabitants,  for  Sardanapalus  continued  to 
follow  the  practice  of  deportation  so  characteristic  of 
the  political  methods  of  his  nation. 

With  Sardanapalus  the  days  of  Assyrian  supremacy 
are  over.  Of  his  two  successors  we  know  little,  except 
the  Greek  tradition  about  the  effeminacy  of  the  last 
king,  Saracus,  or  Sin-shar-ishkun,  for  whose  name  they 
so  frequently  substitute  that  of  Sardanapalus ;  although 
some  of  their  writers  were  aware  of  the  warlike 
character  of  Ashur-bani-pal,  whom  they  distinguish  as 
Sardanapalus  the  First.  With  the  end  of  the  seventh 
century  before  Christ,  came  the  fall  of  Nineveh  and 
the  overthrow  of  the  Assyrian  Empire,  the  bulk  of 
which  passed  into  the  power  of  the  kings  of  Babylon. 

Nebuchadnezzar  carried  on  the  traditions  of  con- 
quest handed  down  to  him  from  his  predecessors,  the 
kings  of  Assyria ;  he  overran  the  countries  of  Western 
Asia,  enforced  the  payment  of  tribute,  and  deposed 
or  slew  the  princes  who  refused  to  acknowledge  his 
supremacy ;  and  he  carried  away  whole  nations  into 


382  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

captivity,  like  Tiglath-Pileser,  Sargon,  or  Sardanapalus. 
The  native  records  of  his  reign  that  have  already  been 
found,  however,  are  not  occupied  with  the  wars,  but 
with  the  buildings  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  we  still 
await  the  discovery  of  an  account  in  cuneiform  charac- 
ters of  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  and  the  deportation  of 
the  Jews  into  Babylonia. 

The  accounts  that  have  been  given  above  of  the 
course  of  conquest  which  attended  the  development 
of  the  Assyrian  power  are  meant  to  illustrate  the 
passages  in  the  prophets  arid  historians  of  Judah. 
which  allude  to  the  extensive  conquests  of  the  Assyrians, 
to  their  warlike  and  ruthless  character,  and  to  their 
peculiar  methods  of  warfare.  These  accounts  enable  us 
to  understand,  as  we  could  not  do  before  the  decipher- 
ment of  the  inscriptions,  what  the  passages  of  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  Hosea,  Micah,  Nahum,  and  Zepha- 
niah  mean,  which  speak  of  the  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian armies,  of  the  terror  which  they  inspired,  of  the 
devastation  which  followed  in  their  track.  They  show 
that  the  carrying  off  of  the  people  of  Samaria  and  of 
Judah  was  part  of  a  settled  policy,  followed  by  the  rulers 
of  the  Assyrian  Empire,  to  enforce  absolute  submission, 
and  to  ensure  the  receipt  of  the  tribute,  which  was  the 
real  object  of  their  expeditions.  Is  not  the  course  of 
conquest  in  Syria  pursued  by  the  Assyrians  from  the 
days  of  Tiglath-Pileser  the  First  to  the  time  of  Sardana- 
palus, and  described  by  the  cuneiform  inscriptions, 
accurately  epitomised  in  the  following  words  of 
Isaiah  ? — 


THE   ASSYRIANS    AS    CONQUERORS.  383 

"  Thou  hast  said,  By  the  multitude  of  my  chariots  am  I  come 
up  to  the  height  of  the  mountains,  to  the  sides  of  Lebanon ;  and  I 
will  cut  down  the  tall  cedars  thereof,  and  the  choice  fir  trees  [or 
cypresses]  thereof  :  and  I  will  enter  into  the  height  of  his  border, 
and  the  forest  of  his  Carrael. 

"  I  have  digged,  and  drunk  water  ;  and  with  the  sole  of  my  feet 
have  I  dried  up  all  the  rivers  of  the  besieged  places. 

"  Hast  thou  not  heard  long  ago,  how  I  have  done  it ;  and  of 
ancient  times,  that  I  have  formed  it  ?  now  have  I  brought  it  to 
pass,  that  thou  shouldest  be  to  lay  waste  defenced  cities  into  ruinous 
heaps. 

"  Therefore  their  inhabitants  were  of  small  power,  they  were 
dismayed  and  confounded  :  they  were  as  the  grass  of  the  field,  and 
as  the  green  herb,  as  the  grass  on  the  housetops,  and  as  corn  blasted 
before  it  be  grown  up." 

In  the  words  of  Hezekiah,  "  the  kings  of  Assyria 
had  laid  waste  all  the  nations  and  their  countries." 

It  was  not  until  the  discovery  and  interpretation 
of  the  native  records  taught  us  how  terrible  a  scourge 
Assyria  had  been  for  many  centuries  to  the  surrounding 
nations  that  we  are  able  fully  to  understand  the  exul- 
tation that  was  felt  when  the  rumour  of  the  fall  of 
Nineveh  first  reached  the  ears  of  men : — 

"  There  is  no  healing  of  thy  bruise ;  thy  wound  is  grievous  :  all 
that  hear  the  bruit  of  thee  shall  clap  the  hands  over  thee :  for  upon 
whom,  hath  not  thy  wickedness  passed  continually  T'  * 

*  Nahum  iii.  19. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE    CULTURE    OF    ASSYRIA    AND    BABYLONIA. 

THE  cities  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon  are  represented  to 
us  by  the  Hebrew  writers  of  the  seventh  and  sixth 
centuries  before  Christ  as  being  wealthy  and  luxurious 
beyond  all  others  of  their  time.  They  were  the  great 
centres  of  trade  and  civilisation,  from  which  the  rest  of 
the  world  purchased,  or  which  they  imitated  in  arts  and 
refinements.  The  merchants  of  Nineveh  were  "  multi- 
plied above  the  stars  of  heaven."  When  the  Chaldeans 
and  Medes  destroyed  Nineveh,  Babylon  succeeded  to  the 
high  place  formerly  occupied  by  the  latter  as  the  capi- 
tal of  Western  Asia  and  the  centre  of  the  commerce  of 
that  region — then,  with  Egypt,  the  most  civilised  in  the 
world.  Babylon  was  a  "  city  of  merchants  "  ;  she  was 
"  abundant  in  treasures " ;  she  is  compared  to  a 
"  golden  cup  in  the  Lord's  hand  that  made  all  the  earth 
drunken."  The  concourse  of  strangers  and  of  traders 
from  foreign  countries  to  Babylon  was  so  great  that 
it  is  said  that  "  all  nations  flowed  together  unto  it." 

The  palaces  of  the  kings  of  Assyria  at  Nineveh  are 
described  as  being  roofed  with  cedar,  and  filled  with 
gold  and  silver  and  an  endless  store  of  "  pleasant  furni- 
ture." The  city  was  strongly  fortified  with  brick  walls. 


THE  CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      385 

As  for  the  buildings  of  Babylon,  they  are  said  to  have 
mounted  up  to  heaven,  and  the  fortifications  were 
thought  to  be  impregnable. 

The  gorgeous  array  of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
horsemen  is  described  by  Ezekiel,  who  speaks  of  the 
Ass}'rian  captains  and  rulers,  "  clothed  most  gorgeously 
with  blue,  all  of  them  desirable  young  men,  riding  upon 
horses  "  ;  and  of  the  Babylonians,  "  girded  with  girdles 
upon  their  loins,  exceeding  in  dyed  attire  upon  their 
heads,  all  of  them  princes  to  look  to,  after  the  manner 
of  the  Babylonians  of  Chaldea,  the  land  of  their 
nativity." 

The  mighty  armies  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia — 
which  were  the  terror  and  scourge  of  Western  Asia 
from  the  eleventh  to  the  sixth  century  before  Christ — 
are  described  as  being  numerous  like  a  swarm  of  cater- 
pillars. The  troops  of  horsemen  thundered  through  the 
streets  of  captured  cities,  and  the  multitude  of  chariots 
jostled  and  rattled  as  they  entered  the  gates,  making 
the  hearts  of  the  inhabitants  tremble  at  the  approach  of 
cruel  death  or  slavery.  "  Engines  of  war  "  and  batter- 
ing-rams were  employed  in  sieges  ;  mounds  were  cast 
up  and  forts  erected  before  the  walls  of  beleaguered 
towns.  The  arts  of  war  had  been  brought  to  greater 
perfection  by  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  than  by 
any  of  their  contemporaries. 

All  these  points  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  culture, 

described  or  alluded  to  by  the  Hebrew  historians  and 

prophets,  are  illustrated  by  the  cuneiform  inscriptions 

or  by  archa3ological  discoveries  on    the  Mesopotamian 

z 


386  NEW  LIGHT    ON   THE   BIBLE. 

sites.  Of  the  great  wealth  of  Nineveh  \ve  have  ample 
proof  in  the  lists  of  spoil  captured  by  the  Assyrian 
kings,  and  the  records  of  tribute  paid  to  them  by  foreign 
princes.  Some  of  these  have  been  quoted  in  former 
chapters.  The  amount  of  gold  and  silver  that  must 
have  been  stored  in  the  Assyrian  palaces  seems  to  us  at 
the  present  day  almost  incredible.  It  was  remarked, 
indeed,  before  the  decipherment  of  the  Assyrian  inscrip- 
tions, that  the  farther  back  we  go  into  the  history  of 
Western  Asia,  the  greater  are  the  stores  of  precious 
metal  recorded  to  have  been  collected  by  the  princes  of 
that  region.  The  riches  of  Damascus  captured  by  David, 
and  those  of  David's  own  son,  Solomon,  are  instances  of 
this.  The  fame  of  the  wealth  amassed  by  the  ancient 
kings  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon  was  handed  down  to  the 
Greeks,  some  of  whom  have  left  us  records  of  what  they 
heard  or  read  on  this  subject.  Sardanapalus,  especially, 
was  famous  as  the  wealthiest  and  most  luxurious  prince 
that  had  ever  reigned.  The  city  of  Ecbatana,  in  Media, 
whither  the  treasures  of  Nineveh  were  transferred  after 
its  capture,  became,  in  its  turn,  one  of  the  wealthiest  in 
the  world  ;  and  the  subsequent  conquest  of  Ecbatana  by 
Cyrus  enriched  the  poverty-stricken  tribe  of  the  Per- 
sians. Babylon  was  still  more  renowned  for  its  wealth. 
The  value  of  the  treasures  of  its  temples,  the  golden 
images  and  furniture,  are  estimated  by  Herodotus  and 
Ctesias  at  an  almost  incredible  amount.  According  to 
the  former  and  more  moderate  of  the  two  historians,  the 
statue  of  Bel-Merodach,  in  his  great  temple  of  Bit- 
Saggil,  together  with  its  golden  pedestal,  table,  and 


THE  CULTURE  OF   ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      387 

throne,  was  composed  of  800  talents  of  the  precious 
metal ;  and  this  was  only  one  of  many  golden  images. 
Even  under  the  AchaBmenian  kings,  Babylon  remained 
the  richest  city  in  the  Persian  Empire,  and  its  rank  in 
this  respect  was  handed  on  to  Seleucia  and  Ctesiplion. 
"  Babylonian  gold  "  was  well  known  among  the 
Romans. 

The  lists  of  spoil  and  tribute  given  us  by  the 
Assyrian  annalists  show  us  what  were  the  principal 
articles  of  culture  and  luxury  among  the  nations  of 
Western  Asia  of  their  time.  Besides  the  stores  of  gold 
and  silver  in  disks,  bars,  or  wedges — for  there  was  no 
coinage — we  read  of  vessels  of  various  kinds  made  of 
the  precious  metals  or,  more  frequently,  of  copper.  In 
the  records  of  Ashur-nasir-pal,  for  instance,  there  is 
frequent  mention  of  "  copper  caldrons,"  or  "  copper 
dishes,"  coming  next  to  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver 
captured  from  some  town,  or  received  as  tribute  from 
some  prince  of  Syria  or  Commagene.  Some  of  these 
very  copper  dishes,  perhaps,  are  now  in  the  British 
Museum,  which  possesses  a  small  store  of  such  vessels, 
found  by  Sir  Henry  Layard  among  the  remains  of 
Ashur-nasir-pal 's  palace  at  Nimroud,  the  ancient  Calah. 
The  copper  in  use  throughout  Western  Asia  was 
probably  introduced  by  Phoenician  trade,  and  most 
of  it  must  have  come  from  Cyprus — from  the  Phoenician 
colonies  in  that  island.  But  not  only  the  material  of 
these  copper  dishes  of  which  we  now  speak  is  from 
Phoenicia ;  the  workmanship  also  is  Phoenician.  They 
are  not  of  pure  copper,  but  of  bronze,  a  tenth  part  of 

7.     9, 


388  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

tin  being  added  for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the 
copper.  The  tin  also  must  have  come  to  Asia  through 
the  enterprise  of  the  Phoenician  merchants,  who  ob- 
tained it  from  the  west  of  Europe  ;  so  that  possibly 
some  of  the  tin  used  to  manufacture  the  vessels  which 
eventually  found  their  way  to  the  palace  of  the  great 
king  at  Nineveh  may  have  come  from  the  mines  of 
our  own  barbarous  island.  The  ornaments,  either 
stamped  in  repousse  or  engraved  upon  these  dishes, 
betray  their  Phoenician  origin  by  the 
mixture  of  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  de- 
signs, so  characteristic  of  a  nation  which 
had  no  original  art  of  its  own  ;  but  if 
there  were  any  doubt  of  this,  it  would  be 
allayed  by  the  fact  that  Phoenician  in- 
scriptions are  also  to  be  found  on  some 
of  the  vessels.  The  designs  often  consist  of  concen- 
tric bands  of  rosettes  and  symmetrical  festoons  of 
figures ;  we  find  forms  such  as  the  winged  scarabseus, 
or  the  sphinx  of  Egypt,  or  the  images  of  the  goddess 
Hathor  or  the  god  Bel.  Some  of  the  dishes  are  in- 
crusted  with  gold  or  silver.  Similar  dishes,  undoubtedly 
of  Phoenician  workmanship,  have  been  discovered  in 
Cyprus,  and  even  in  Italy,  where  the  Phoenicians  had 
colonies.  Besides  these  artistically  decorated  dishes,  the 
Assyrians  employed  the  copper  which  they  obtained  as 
spoil  or  tribute,  or  purchased  through  trade,  in  the 
more  homely  manufacture  of  household  vessels  and 
utensils  of  every  kind.  Specimens  of  these  have  been 
found  among  the  ruins.  Chairs  and  couches  were  also 


ASSYRIAN  VESSEL. 


THE   CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      389 

made  of  bronze,  and  these  were  worked  into  shapes  of 
much  elegance;  some  remains  of  bronze  furniture  of  this 
sort  have  also  been  discovered  among  the  excavations. 

The  household  furniture  of  the  Assyrians,  whether 
of  bronze,  ivory,  or  wood,  is  fully  illustrated  in  the 
bas-reliefs  from  their  palaces.  The  forms  which  the 
workmen  imitated  in  their  designs  are  borrowed  from 
the  animal  and  vegetable  worlds.  The  lion  was  es- 
pecially copied  in  the  decorative  arts  of  Assyria;  he 


ASSYRIAN    FLY-FLAP    AND    SWORDS. 


was  then  common  in  the  country,  and  appeared  as  a 
symbol  of  strength  and  majesty  ;  hence,  lions'  heads 
and  lions'  claws  ornament  the  feet  of  the  tables  and  the 
arms  of  the  chairs,  as  well  as  the  hilts  of  swords  and 
the  poles  of  standards.  But  there  is  much  variety  of 
ornament  to  be  seen  in  the  productions  of  the  industrial 
artists  of  Assyria :  goats,  panthers,  and  bulls  supply 
motives ;  and  from  the  vegetable  world,  flowers  and 
leaves,  the  lotus  and  the  palm,  are  seen,  arranged  in 
elegant  combinations ;  besides  geometrical  designs, 
rosettes,  interlacing  lines,  and  other  figures. 

One  of  the  most  elaborate  pieces  of  furniture  repre- 


390  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

sented  in  the  bas-reliefs  is  the  throne  upon  which  Sen- 
nacherib sits  before  the  walls  of  Lachish,  while  the 
Jewish  captives  pass  before  him.  The  horizontal  bars 
of  this  throne  are  supported  by  three  rows  of  human 
figures,  one  above  the  other,  and  are  themselves 
elaborately  sculptured,  as  well  as  the  feet  and  the 
accompanying  footstool. 

The   chariots   of  the  Assyrians,  the   multitudes    of 
which    struck    such    terror     into .  the    hearts    of     re- 


ASSYKIAN    CHARIOT.  ASSYRIAN'    TIARA. 

bellious  vassals  and  tributaries,  were  built  of  wood, 
adorned  with  elegant  work  in  metal.  The  form  of 
the  chariot  closely  resembled  that  in  use  among  the 
Greeks  and  Romans.  The  body,  which  was  of  light 
wicker-work,  was  semicircular  in  shape,  and  open  at 
the  back  ;  it  was  very  small,  and  could  only  contain 
the  warrior  and  his  charioteer ;  at  the  sides  were  richly- 
decorated  cases,  like  quivers,  to  contain  the  arrows 
required  in  the  combat.  The  form  of  the  pole  shows 
much  artistic  fancy  and  skill ;  it  was  exceedingly  slender 
and  gracefully  curved,  and  it  terminated  in  the  head  of 
an  animal  or  a  bird;  and  from  this  head,  bent  gracefully 


THE   CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      31)1 

backwards,  a  broad  strip  of  embroidered  leather  was 
stretched  to  the  body  of  the  chariot,  above  the  pole, 
in  order  to  keep  the  horses  more  completely  from  touch- 
ing one  another. 

The  Assyrian  soldiers  covered  their  heads  with 
bronze  helmets,  specimens  of  which  are  to  be  seen  in 
our  museums  ;  at  least  seven  different  forms  of  the 
helmet  have  been  identified,  and  most  of  them  are 
ornamented  by  a  crest  at  the  top.  Some  of  the  soldiers 
wore  leather  tunics,  and  others  protected  themselves 
more  efficacious!}'  from  the  weapons  of  the  enemy  by 
coats  of  mail.  The  bronze  shields  which  they  carried 
were  often  almost  as  highly  ornamented  as  that  of 
Achilles :  at  least  they  were  covered  with  elaborate 
designs  in  repousse ;  and  there  is  one  at  the  British 
Museum  adorned  with  concentric  processions  of  lions 
and  bulls.  The  weapons  with  which  the  Assyrians 
were  armed  were  the  bow  and  arrows,  the  spear,  the 
sword,  and  the  club.  The  arrow-heads,  the  spear-heads, 
and  the  swords  had  sometimes  a  nucleus  of  iron  coated 
with  bronze,  and  were  sometimes  entirely  of  the 
stronger,  but  rarer,  metal.  Bronze  was  also  largely 
used  for  all  sorts  of  minor  works  of  art,  such  as 
statuettes  of  gods  and  genii  or  of  the  Assyrian  kings, 
and  weights — in  the  form  of  couching  lions — which 
were  used  in  commerce.  Many  of  the  last  bronze 
monuments  have  been  found,  of  various  weights  and 
sizes ;  and  since  they  have  the  amount  of  the  weight  to 
which  they  correspond  marked  upon  them  in  Assyrian, 
and  also  sometimes  in  Aramaic  characters,  they  enable 


392  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

us  to  know  in  the  most  authentic  manner  the  exact 
value  of  the  Assyrian  talent,  maneh,  and  shekel  in  the 
eighth,  seventh,  and  sixth  centuries  before  Christ. 
One  such  weight,  in  the  form  of  a  lion,  weighing  "  two 
royal  manehs,"  is  the  only  contemporary  monument  we 
possess  of  Shalmaneser  IV.,  the  invader  of  Samaria, 
whose  name  is  also  marked  upon  it. 

The  standards  of  the  Assyrians  are  frequently 
represented  in  the  bas-reliefs  which  supply  us  with 
scenes  from  their  campaigns.  Jeremiah  speaks  of  the 
standards  carried  by  the  armies  of  Western  Asia,  and 
bids  the  enemies  of  Babylon  "  set  up  the  standard  upon 
the  walls  "  of  that  city,  and  to  "  set  up  a  standard  in 
the  land "  to  call  together  the  nations  against  her. 
The  Assyrian  standards  were  formed  of  a  pole,  hav- 
ing at  the  summit  a  disk  of  bronze,  the  .surface  of 
which  was  decorated  with  symbolical  figures  ;  the  figure 
of  the  god  Ashur,  drawing  his  bow  against  his  enemies, 
stood  between  the  two  diverging  streams  of  the 
Euphrates  and  Tigris,  on  each  side  of  which  were 
figures  of  oxen.  The  pole  of  the  standard  was  further 
decorated  with  bulls'  heads  and  lions'  heads,  arranged 
alternately  along  it. 

The  degree  of  excellence  to  which  the  Assyrians 
carried  the  art  of  working  in  bronze  is  best  shown  by 
the  bands  of  that  metal  which  decorated  the  gates  at 
Balawat.  These  bands  are  nine  inches  broad,  and 
decorated  in  repousse  with  scenes  from  the  campaigns 
of  Shalmaneser  II. ;  *  the  figures  are,  of  course,  very 

*  See  page  367  if. 


THE  CULTURE   OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      31W 

small,  and  are  executed  with  great  skill.  An  immense 
number  of  figures  enter  into  the  decoration,  for  the 
hands  are  divided  in  two  by  a  horizontal  row  of 
rosettes  running  along  the  middle ;  and  above  as  well 
as  below  this  ban'd  are  a  series  of  representations  of 
battles,  marches,  sieges,  reception  of  tributaries,  and 
punishments  of  prisoners.  Besides  the  human  figures, 
the  chariots  and  horses,  the  rivers,  mountains,  trees,  and 


ASSYKIAX    KING    WITH    1'RISOXEKS 


walls  are  carefully  reproduced,  on  a  very  small  scale 
and  with  much  knowledge  and  skill.  These  bronze 
bands  were  nailed  on  the  wooden  gates  at  intervals,  so 
that  they  formed  a  series  of  horizontal  lines  across  it. 

Nothing  is  more  carefully  represented  in  the 
Assyrian  bas-reliefs  than  the  clothing  of  the  king  and 
his  officers.  They  wear  most  gorgeous  garments,  stiff 
and  heavy  with  embroideries  of  the  most  various  de- 
signs, which  often  entirely  cover  the  material  *  of  which 

*  The  Babylonians  wore  a  long  linen  tunic,  and  over  that  an  upper 
garment  of  wool.  It  may  be  supposed  that  silk,  coming  from  China 
through  India.  Avas  also  occasionally  worn  (Ezek.  XA  i.  10,  13). 


394 


NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 


the  dress  is  made ;  and  their  head-dresses  are  no  less 
elaborately  decorated.  They  are,  in  fact,  the  Chaldsean 
horsemen,  captains  and  rulers,  "  dressed  most  gorge- 
ously," and  "  exceeding  in  dyed  attire  upon  their 
heads,"  whom  Aholah  and  Aholibah  saw  and  loved  in 
the  allegory  of  Ezekiel.  It  corresponds  to  this  gor- 
geousness  of  apparel  in  ancient  Meso- 
potamia and  Syria  that,  among  the 
spoils  and  tribute  of  the  Assyrian 
kings,  many-coloured  garments  and 
garments  of  blue- purple  and  red- 
purple  are  so  frequently  mentioned. 
According  to  Ezekiel,  the  Assyrian 
captains  were  dressed  in  "  blue "  or 
bluish-purple ;  and  the  very  word 
(Hebrew  t'keleth,  Assyrian  takillu) 
frequently  occurs  in  the  lists  of  spoil 
or  tribute  received  by  the  Assyrian 
monarchs  during  their  campaigns  ;  the 
Septuagint  and  the  Vulgate  render 
the  word  by  "hyacinthine,"'*  thus  showing  of  what 
shade  the  colour  was.  There  were  two  kinds  of  purple 
known  to  the  western  Asiatics  during  those  early 
ages — the  reddish-purple  and  the  bluish-purple,  which 
are  constantly  mentioned  together  in  the  Assyrian 
records ;  as,  for  instance,  in  the  list  of  Hezekiah's 
tribute,  quoted  above,  f  The  two  colours  are  also 

*  That  is  to  say,  probably,  of  ft  colour  approaching  that  of  the  hyacinth- 
stone  or  sapphire. 
f  See  page  377. 


SENNA.CHERIH    ON    HIS 
THRONE. 


THE  CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      395 

mentioned  together  in  passages  of  the  Old  Testament : 
as,  for  instance,  in  the  description  of  the  Tabernacle 
(Exodus  xxv.  4,  xxvi.  1),  and  in  the  description  of  the 
palace  of  Xerxes  at  Susa  (Esther  i.  6).  The  reddish- 
purple  (Hebrew  arpdmdn,  Assyrian  argamdnu)  was  more 
properly  the  purple  colour ;  it  is  translated  "  purple  " 
in  our  version,  as  well  as  in  the  Septuagint  and  Vulgate. 
It  was  this  reddish-purple  that  was  borrowed  by  the 
Western  nations  as  the  proper  colour  of  royal  and  impe- 
rial robes.  The  Roman  emperors  adopted  this  as  their 
colour.  What  the  exact  tint  of  the  imperial  robes  was 
we  may  conclude  from  the  "  purple"  stone  — the  porphyry 
— which  was  also  held  to  be  imperial  in  colour,  and  to 
represent  the  colour  of  the  emperor's  toga.  Some  of 
the  later  Roman  statues  have  the  head  of  white  marble 
and  the  dress  of  porphyry,  with  the  intention  of 
reproducing  the  actual  colour  of  the  robe  ;  and  as  it 
was  fitting  that  those  born  in  the  purple  should  also 
be  buried  in  the  purple,  the  sarcophagus  of  some  of  the 
rulers  of  the  Roman  world  was  also  carved  out  of  the 
purple  stone. 

The  Popes,  after  the  Gothic  invasion  of  Italy,  be- 
came in  many  ways  the  successors  of  the  Roman  em- 
perors, and  therefore  they  adopted  the  imperial  purple : 
thus  the  papal  mantle  is  at  the  present  day  a  survival 
of  the  purple  toga  of  the  Caesars,  and  different  shades 
of  the  imperial  colour  were  conceded  to  cardinals  and 
bishops.  The  crimson  robes  of  European  sovereigns 
have  a  similar  origin ;  and  thus  the  "  reddish-purple  " 
worn  by  Oriental  princes  and  great  men  in  ancient  days 


396  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

has,    to    some    degree,  retained    its  significance    to  the 
present  time. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Assyrian  robes  of  hyacinth 
and  purple,  or  blue  and  crimson,  were  richly  embroidered. 
It  is  worth  while  to  remark  some  of  the  designs  which 
these  embroideries  show ;  for  many  of  them  had  a  reli- 
gious significance,  and  many  survived  in  Oriental  em- 
broideries down  to  the  Middle  Ages,  if  not  to  the 
present  day.  The  robes  of  Ashur-nasir-pal  show  de- 
signs such  as  the  sacred  tree,  guarded  by  genii,  and 
symbolical  animals  vanquished  by  gods  or  fighting  with 
one  another,  besides  flowers,  rosettes,  and  other  figures 
that  may  have  become  purely  decorative.  It  seems  not 
unlikely,  however,  that  all  these  designs  were,  in  the 
first  instance,  intended  to  act  as  charms  or  talismans, 
which  should  protect  the  wearer  and  attract  the  favour 
of  the  deity  to  him,  and  that  in  process  of  time  they 
lost  their  meaning  and  became  mere  ornaments— as  they 
certainly  did  when  they  spread  to  foreign  countries,  or 
were  handed  down  to  later  times  when  new  religions 
had  been  introduced.  The  combats  between  animals — 
such  as  the  attack  of  the  lion  upon  the  bull  or  antelope 
• — were  handed  down  through  the  Persians  to  the  artists 
of  Constantinople  and  to  the  Arabs,  and  may  be  seen  in 
mediaeval  embroideries,  such  as  the  imperial  robes  at 
Vienna.  We  have  already  seen  how  great  a  demand 
there  was  for  Babylonian  embroideries  under  the  Roman 
Empire ;  the  representations  of  them  on  the  bas-reliefs 
discovered  in  Mesopotamia  during  this  century  fully 
illustrate  and  explain  the  beauty  of  the  work  upon  which 
so  high  a  value  was  set. 


THE  CULTURE   OF  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA.      397 

A  substance  wliich  is  frequently  named  in  the  lists 
of  tribute  and  spoil  is  ivory ;  we  read  of  tusks  of  ivory, 
and  also  of  furniture  incrusted  with  ivory,  such  as 
couches  and  thrones.  Some  examples  of  the  ivory  orna- 
ments possessed  by  the  Assyrians  have  been  found  in 
Ashur-nasir-pal's  palace  at  Nimroud,  and  appear,  like 
the  bronze  dishes,  to  be  of  Phrenician  workmanship; 
for  they  show  the  same  intermixture  of  Egyptian  with 
Assyrian  designs.  Among  these 
ivory  ornaments  are  some  which 
formed  the  cover  of  a  casket ; 
their  designs,  skilfully  carved  in 
relief,  include  an  Ethiopian,  with 
woolly  hair,  holding  a  lotus-stalk, 
and  a  woman,  with  her  hair  dressed 
in  the  Egyptian  fashion,  framed 
in  a  window  with  a  balustrade  of 
Egyptian  form.  In  some  of  the 
ivory  incrustations  of  furniture,  the  main  material  is 
inlaid  with  coloured  glass. 

The  name  of  the  last  substance  has  not  been 
recognised  with  certainty  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions, 
but  many  glass  vessels  have  been  found  among  the 
Assyrian  ruins.  The  most  remarkable  of  these  is 
thought  to  be  of  Pboenician  workmanship,  and  is  the 
oldest  piece  of  transparent  glass  known  to  us,  so  far 
as  we  can  judge.  It  bears  its  own  date  upon  itself, 
for  it  exhibits  the  words  "  Palace  of  Sargon  "  upon  its 
surface,  and  must,  therefore,  have  "been  manufactured 
in  the  latter  years  of  the  seventh  century  before  Christ. 


ASSYRIAN    HEAD-STALLS. 


398 


NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 


The  Assyrians  lavished  decoration  upon  everything 
with  which  they  were  surrounded.  The  leather  harness 
and  trappings  of  their  horses  are  elaborately  em- 
broidered ;  the  head-stall  is  decorated  with  metal  or  ivory 
studs  and  with  a  profusion  of  tassels,  and  hung  with 
bells.  Of  their  jewellery,  the  excavations  have  naturally 
furnished  few  examples,  because  the  precious  metals  were 
seized  by  the  conquerors  many  centuries  ago.  Neck- 
laces of  gold  and  of  precious  stones  have  been  found  at 


ASSYRIAN    JEWELLERY. 


Khorsabad,  and  a  few  earrings  and  bracelets  have  been 
disinterred.  On  the  other  hand,  we  learn  much  from 
the  bas-reliefs  about  the  jewellery  of  the  Assyrians. 
The  king  and  his  attendants  wear  necklaces,  earrings, 
and  bracelets  of  various  and  elegant  forms.  The 
monarch  also  wears  a  golden  diadem  around  his  em- 
broidered tiara.  The  bracelets  are  often  wound  two  or 
three  times  round  the  arm,  and  are  ornamented  with 
animals'  heads  at  their  extremities ;  or  they  are  simple 
bands  decorated  with  rosettes.* 

*  The  advanced  state  of  refinement  reached  by  the  Assyrians  is 
illustrated  by  the  attention  which  they  paid  to  their  own  persons.  In- 
stances of  this  are  the  elaborately  curled  wigs  and  false  beards  worn  by 
the  king,  and  the  carefully  crisped  hair  of  his  attendants. 


THE  CULTURE   OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      399 

Of  the  cylindrical  seals  mentioned  by  Herodotus 
as  worn  by  every  Babylonian,  and  employed  to  make 
impressions  upon  the  clay  documents,  in  place  of 
signature,  nothing  need  be  said,  for  they  are  the 
commonest  and  best  known  of  all  the  monuments  of 
Assyria  and  Chaldsea.  The  skill  with  which,  in  the 
best  periods,  they  are  engraved  is  another  instance  of 
the  high  culture  of  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians 
during  the  latter  centuries  of  their  supremacy. 

The  excavations  of  the  present  century  have  enabled 
us  to  form  a  fair  idea  of  the  form  and  decoration  of  the 
Assyrian  palaces,  and  of  the  skill  attained  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Nineveh  and  Calah  in  architecture  and 
the  arts  which  accompany  it.  The  palaces  stood  on 
immense  platforms,  built  of  clay  and  sun-baked  bricks, 
sometimes  faced  with  limestone,  and  designed  to  raise 
them  above  the  plain :  both  for  the  sake  of  adding 
dignity  to  the  royal  residence,  and  of  protecting  it  from 
the  injurious  action  of  the  periodical  floods.  The 
summit  of  the  platform  which  supported  the  palace  of 
Sargon  at  Dur-Sharrukin,  the  modern  Khorsabad,  was 
nearly  twenty-five  acres  in  area  ;  and  the  mass  of 
material  brought  together  to  form  it  is  estimated  at 
forty-eight  millions  of  cubic  feet.  On  a  bas-relief  of 
the  time  of  Sennacherib  we  see  a  body  of  captives 
engaged  in  constructing  a  similar  platform,  for  the 
palace  of  Nineveh ;  and  the  king  himself,  attended  by 
his  officers,  sometimes  came  in  person  to  inspect  the 
work  of  construction. 

The   platform   was   reached   by   staircases,    besides 


400  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

which  there  was  an  ascent  on  an  inclined  plane  for 
horses  and  chariots.  The  upper  surface  was  paved 
with  burnt  bricks,  and  it  was  surrounded  by  a  rampart 
of  brick  or  stone.  Upon  the  terrace,  or  platform,  rose 
the  structure  of  the  palace  itself,  consisting  of  a  large 
number  of  chambers  arranged  round  different  court- 
yards. The  palace  of  Sargon  contained  no  less  than 
two  hundred  and  nine  large  rooms.  The  walls  were 
built  of  baked  or  crude  bricks,  and  probably  the  rooms 
were  often  roofed  with  a  solid  vaulting  or  dome  of 
bricks  and  clay.  Two  rooms  in  Sargon's  palace  were 
no  less  than  forty -four  feet  square,  and  must  have  been 
covered  by  domes.  Indeed,  some  fragments  of  the 
vaulting  which  had  fallen  into  the  chambers,  but  had 
partly  retained  their  form,  were  actually  found  by  the 
excavators.  Many  of  the  rooms  were  long,  but  narrow, 
in  order  to  afford  a  firmer  support  for  the  vaulted  roof. 
Other  rooms  must  have  been  roofed  with  cedar  beams 
brought  from  the  Lebanon,  for  fragments  of  such 
beams  have  been  discovered  ;  and  it  will  be  remembered 
what  an  extensive  employment  of  cedar  from  the 
.Amanus  and  Lebanon  was  made  by  the  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  monarchs,  who  sometimes  seem  to  have  sent 
expeditions  solely  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  down 
the  trees  upon  those  mountain  ranges.  This  plunder 
of  the  mountain-sides  is  what  the  prophet  alludes 
to  in  the  following  words,  referring  to  the  death 
of  the  King  of  Babylon,  who,  in  his  Phoenician 
campaign,  had  followed  the  example  of  his  Assyrian 
predecessors :— 


THE   CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      401 

"Yea,  the  fir  trees  rejoice  at  thee,  and  the  cedars  of  Lebanon, 
saying,  Since  thou  art  laid  down,  no  feller  is  come  up  against 
us."  * 

The  Assyrian  palaces  seem  to  have  been  divided 
into  three  principal  parts,  like  the  royal  residences  of 
more  recent  times  in  the  East.  There  were  the  king's 
own  apartments,  and  the  rooms  for  official  business  and 
receptions ;  there  was  the  harem,  or  part  allotted  to  the 
women  of  the  royal  palace  ;  and  lastly,  there  was  the 
division  which  inbluded  the  offices  and  the  lodgings  of 
the  household  slaves  and  of  the  king's  guards.  Besides 
smaller  courts,  there  were  three  courtyards  of  especially 
large  extent,  into  which  the  principal  chambers  of  the 
three  divisions  opened.  The  harem  communicated  with 
the  rest  of  the  house  by  two  doors  only.  Some  of  the 
courts  were  probably  surrounded  by  a  colonnade  of 
slender  wooden  pillars,  sometimes  cased  with  bronze  ; 
and  in  some  cases  there  was,  without  doubt,  a  second 
storey  above  the  lower  rooms. 

Many  traces  have  been  found  of  the  decorations  of 
the  palaces.  The  walls  of  the  court-yards  were  some- 
times lined  with  enamelled  tiles,  decorated  with  human 
figures  or  with  ornamental  designs  in  colour.  The 
finest  of  such  tiles  were  those  over  the  doorway  form- 
ing the  principal  entrance  at  Khorsabad,  where  they 
covered  the  archivolt.  The  ground  of  this  semicircular 
border  of  glazed  bricks  was  of  a  bright  blue ;  and  upon 
this  were  figures  of  winged  genii,  in  white  and  yellow, 
divided  by  rosettes  ;  the  upper  and  lower  edges  of 

*  Isaiah  xir.  8. 
A    A 


402 


NEW   LTGTIT    ON    THE    BIFtLE. 


the  archivolt  showed  white  bands  and  rows  of  white 
rosettes.  The  decoration  with  enamelled  tiles  in  the 
Assyrian  palaces  was  only  inferior  to  that  of  the 


IMAGINARY    RESTORATION    OP   ASSYRIAN    PALACE. 

Persian  palaces,  of  which  we  have  already  heard.  The 
palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar  at  Babylon,  although  it 
has  been  so  imperfectly  examined,  is  known  to  have 
been  partly  faced  with  enamelled  tiles,  fragments  of 
which  have  been  discovered,  decorated  with  designs 
of  animals  and  flowers  in  colours.  The  Babylonians 
appear  to  have  invented  the  glazed  bricks  with  de- 
signs in  relief,  which  were  imitated  by  the  Persians 
at  Susa. 


THE   CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      403 

Tiles  from  Ashur-nasir-pal's  palace  at  Calah  show 
the  king  himself,  attended  by  his  officers,  pouring  out  a 
libation. 

The  chambers  of  the  palaces  were  internally  deco- 
rated with  bas-reliefs  carved  on  thin  slabs  of  alabaster, 
which  lined  the  walls  from  the  floor  to  a  considerable 
height.  Some  of  these  are  the  principal  examples  of 
Assyrian  art  that  have  reached  Europe,  and  the  large 
collection  of  them  at  the  British  Museum  is  well 
known  to  everyone.  These  bas-reliefs  are  sculptured 
with  scenes  from  the  history  of  the  kings  of  Assyria ; 
principally  with  their  wars,  but  also  with  their  hunting 
expeditions  and  their  building  operations.  The  earliest 
are  those  from  the  palace  of  Ashur-nasir-pal,  and  the 
latest  those  of  Sardanapalus  ;  so  that  we  are  enabled 
to  trace  the  progress  of  Assyrian  sculpture  from  the 
beginning  of  the  ninth  century  before  Christ  to  the 
end  of  the  seventh.  It  is  not  difficult  to  detect  a 
very  considerable  advance  in  correctness  and  delicacy 
of  execution  during  that  period. 

The  treatment  of  the  human  figure,  although  it 
improves,  remains  stiff  and  conventional  to  the  last ; 
but  the  drawing  of  the  animals  in  the  reign  of 
Sardanapalus  is  so  true  to  life  that  it  has  perhaps 
hardly  been  surpassed  at  the  present  day. 

It  is  in  the  treatment  of  composite  scenes  that  the 
defects  of  Assyrian  art  are  above  all  apparent.  There 
is  an  entire  absence  of  perspective,  and  often  a  com- 
plete disregard  of  the  relative  size  of  objects,  so  that 
men  are  taller  than  their  horses,  and  even  than  the 

A  A    2 


404  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

walls  of  the  fortresses  which  they  are  besieging.*  By 
a  common  device  in  ancient  art,  the  principal  person- 
ages of  a  scene  are  represented  as  taller  than  the  rest; 
the  king,  for  instance,  appears  as  a  giant  among  his 
subjects,  exactly  as  he  does  in  the  Egyptian  paintings 
and  bas-reliefs.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  in  the 
treatment  of  details  that  the  sculptors  of  Nineveh  and 
Calah  excelled.  All  the  minute  ornament  that  was 
lavished  on  the  dress  and  furniture  of  the  Assyrians  is 
elaborately  reproduced  in  the  sculptures.  We  have 
already  remarked  how  much  can  be  learnt  from  them 
about  embroidery,  upholstery,  jewellery,  and  the  rest  of 
the  industrial  arts,  and  this  is  for  the  reason  now  given 
— because  of  the  excessive  attention  to  minute  detail  on 
the  part  of  the  artists. 

Above  the  line  of  the  bas-reliefs,  the  Assyrian 
chambers  were  decorated  by  paintings  on  the  stucco  ; 
for  the  bare  brickwork  was  nowhere  allowed  to  be  seen. 
Such  paintings  appear  to  have  consisted,  like  those  on 
the  enamelled  tiles,  of  symbolical  figures  of  animals 
and  genii,  interspersed  with  decorative  figures,  such  as 
rosettes,  pine-cones,  and  geometrical  designs,  bordered  by 
rows  of  battlements  or  guilloches.  The  same  sort  of 
decoration  was  applied  to  the  vaulted  ceilings ;  but 
sometimes  the  chambers,  instead  of  being  vaulted,  were 
"  ceiled  with  cedar  and  painted  with  vermilion."  The 
bas-reliefs  which  have  just  been  described  were  also 
originally  painted  so  that  they  harmonised  with  the 
coloured  decoration  above  them  ;  traces  of  blue  and 

*  See  page  9. 


THE   CULTURE   OF  ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA.      405 

vermilion  may  still  be  detected  on  many  parts  of  these 
sculptured  slabs  in  our  museums,  although,  for  the  most 
part,  the  colouring  has  been  rubbed  off  or  has  faded 
away. 

The  floors  of  the  Assyrian  palaces  were  paved  with 
bricks,  but  they  were  covered  in  ancient  times  with  rich 
carpets,  representations  of  which  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
carved  alabaster  thresholds  which  lay  outside  some  of 
the  doors.  These  thresholds  are  probably  copied  from 
the  carpets  which  lay  inside  the  doors.  Those  that  have 
been  found  are  decorated  with  a  number  of  squares 
symmetrically  arranged,  and  separated  by  borders  of 
rosettes  ;  the  squares  contain  a  rosette  in  the  centre, 
from  which  four  pine-cones  diverge  towards  the  four 
corners  ;  between  the  cones  are  lotus-flowers  or  tulips. 
The  border  of  the  whole  carpet  is  formed  of  a  series 
of  cones  and  lotus-flowers,  placed  alternately.  Nothing 
can  exceed  the  charming  effect  of  these  designs  as  a 
decoration  of  the  floor. 

The  principal  entrances  were  closed  with  cedar  doors, 
bound  with  bronze,  and  turning  on  pivots  in  stone 
sockets.  The  entrances  of  the  chambers  had  embroi- 
dered curtains  hung  before  them. 

It  might  be  expected  that  as  the  Assyrians  reached 
such  excellence  in  sculpture,  they  would  have  adorned 
their  residences  with  statues  as  well  as  bas-reliefs.  That 
they  did  not  do  so  is  chiefly,  or  entirely,  to  be  attributed 
to  the  want  of  stone  suitable  for  sculpture  in  the  round ; 
for  the  alabaster  or  gypsum  of  which  the  sculptured 
slabs  were  made  is  found  in  thin  layers,  and  is  extremely 


406  NEW  LIGHT   ON    THE   BIBLE. 

soft  and  friable  in  its  nature — hence,  although  well 
suited  for  the  bas-reliefs,  it  was  not  fit  material  for 
statues.  Some  attempts  at  carving  statues  were  made, 
however,  and  the  British  Museum  possesses  a  standing 
figure  of  Ashur-nasir-pal,  which,  by  its  defects,  shows 
what  the  cause  was  for  which  such  works  were  not 
more  often  executed ;  the  arms  and  hands  are  held  close 
to  the  body,  and  the  hair  and  beard  are  imperfectly 
finished,  to  avoid  the  chance  of  breaking.  Besides  this, 
there  are  two  rough  statues  of  the  god  Nebo,  also  of 
the  ninth  century  ;  and  at  Khorsabad  there  were  found 
two  columns  in  the  form  of  human  figures,  like  the 
Caryatides  of  the  Erechtheum. 

The  main  entrances  of  the  palaces  were  guarded  on 
each  side  by  the  immense  human-headed  bulls  or  lions 
with  which  we  are  so  familiar ;  but  these  monsters  are 
never  entirely  disengaged  from  the  blocks  out  of  which 
they  are  carved ;  on  account  of  the  softness  of  the  gypsum 
and  the  danger  of  breakage,  one  side  of  the  block  is 
always  left,  and  the  other  side  alone  is  sculptured  into 
the  form  required.  The  plain  part  of  the  block  was,  of 
course,  built  into  the  wall  of  the  gateway,  and  the 
winged  bulls  and  lions  formed  the  inner  sides  of  the 
entrance  :  so  they  faced  the  visitor  as  he  arrived,  and 
he  passed  between  them  on  his  way  into  the  courtyard 
of  the  palace.  We  all  know  the  form  of  these  monsters  : 
their  immense  wings,  on  which  every  feather  is  so  care- 
fully carved,  and  their  terrible  countenances  crowned 
by  the  embroidered  tiara,  with  horns  on  each  side,  as  a 
conventional  mark  of  their  super-terrestrial  nature. 


THE  CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.       407 

It  must  surely  be  a  proof  that  the  motive  of  the 
Assyrian  artists  was  less  artistic  than  religious  that 
so  many  of  their  sculptures — not  only  the  winged  bulls, 
but  also  the  bas-reliefs  and  statues — are  partly  covered 
with  inscriptions,  which,  to  a  considerable  degree, 
spoil  the  artistic  effect.  The  fact  is  that  the  sculp- 
tures, like  the  writing  upon  them,  were  not,  in  the 
first  instance,  executed  for  the  sake  of  beauty,  but  as 
monuments  before  gods  and  men  of  the  religious  devo- 
tion of  the  monarch  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  his  power 
and  greatness  on  the  other;  and  thus  they  attracted 
the  favour  of  the  heavenly  powers,  and  also  impressed 
a  suitable  lesson  of  submission  upon  the  rest  of  man- 
kind. In  these  inscriptions  the  monarch  records  his 
execution  of  the  will  of  the  gods  by  his  punishment  of 
their  enemies :  that  is  to  say,  his  military  campaigns,  in 
which  he  extorted  tribute  from  the  surrounding  nations, 
and  severely  chastised  those  who  were  slow  to  pay  it. 

The  art  of  writing  and  the  practice  of  litera- 
ture in  Assyria  and  Babylonia  were,  without  doubt, 
in  the  first  instance  the  invention  of  the  priests,  in 
whose  hands  they  remained,  to  a  great  extent,  down 
to  the  final  decay  of  their  religious  system.  The 
beginning  of  the  cuneiform  writing  took  place  among 
a  non-Semitic  nation — the  Sumerians  or  Accadians ; 
but  we  hardly  know  it  except  as  borrowed  by  their 
Semitic  neighbours,  who  so  early  obtained  the  upper 
hand  in  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  The 
Bible  says  little  about  the  literature  of  Babylonia  or 
Assyria.  Only,  when  Isaiah  speaks  of  the  star-gazers 


408  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

and  enchanters,  he  of  course  implies  the  existence  of  an 
astrological  and  magical  literature,  such  as  we  can  now 
actually  study  on  the  clay  tablets  in  the  British  Museum. 
Again,  when  Sennacherib  boasts  of  the  exploits  of  his 
ancestors,  and  asks,  "  Have  the  gods  of  the  nations  de- 
livered them  which  my  fathers  have  destroyed  ?  "  he 
implies  the  existence  of  the  records  upon  the  clay  cylin- 
ders and  tablets,  in  which,  as  we  now  know,  the  Assy- 
rian kings  read  of  the  deeds  of  their  predecessors,  to 
which  they  so  often  allude  in  their  own  annals. 
The  Book  of  Daniel  alone  speaks  directly  of  the 
"  learning  of  the  Chaldeans,"  by  which  the  lore 
of  the  astrologers  and  of  the  interpreters  of  omens 
would  seem,  above  all,  to  be  intended.  The  great 
collection  of  texts  referring  to  omens  and  their  inter- 
pretation forms  one  of  the  most  important  parts  of 
the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  literature  now  stored  in 
the  British  Museum,  and  much  of  it  is  concerned  with 
dreams  and  their  explanation.  This  part  of  Assyrian 
literature  is,  however,  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  under- 
stand ;  yet  it  may  be  hoped  that  before  many  years  it 
will  be  translated  with  as  great  accuracy  as  the  historical 
inscriptions.*  Of  the  astrological  and  astronomical  lite- 
rature of  the  Babylonians  mention  has  been  made  in  a 
former  chapter ;  it  was  with  this  branch  of  learning  that 
the  astrologers  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  court  were  occupied 
— the  Book  of  Daniel  speaks  of  them  in  several  places. 
There  seems,  to  judge  from  the  cuneiform  inscriptions, 

*  Dr.  Bezold's  catalogue  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  is  doing  much 
towards  the  interpretation  of  the  omen-tablets. 


THE  CULTURE   OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      409 

to  have  been  a  chief  astronomer,  or  Astronomer  Royal, 
whose  business  it  was  to  make  periodical  reports  to  the 
king  concerning  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens,  such 
appearances  being  considered  of  the  greatest  importance 
for  the  conduct  of  political  affairs. 

Isaiah,  as  we  have  seen,  alludes  to  the  Babylonian 
magicians  or  sorcerers,  and  the  Book  of  Daniel  also 
speaks  of  them.  A  large  number  of  the  incantations 
which  these  sorcerers  employed  are  now  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum.  Like  the  omen-texts,  they  do 
not  come  from  Babylon,  but  from  Nineveh,  where  they 
formed  part  of  the  library  of  Sardanapalus.  There  is 
little  doubt,  however,  that  all  this  literature  was 
borrowed  from  Babylonia,  and,  in  fact,  originally  taken 
from  the  Accadian  inhabitants  of  that  region,  who 
handed  on  their  religion  and  their  magic  to  the  people 
of  Semitic  race  who  eventually  ruled  their  country. 
The  Babylonian  enchanters  were  especially  employed 
to  charm  away  diseases,  and  many  of  the  texts  in 
the  library  of  Sardanapalus  contain  the  formulas  that 
were  repeated  over  the  sick,  and  the  directions  for  the 
compounding  of  magical  drinks  which  were  to  put  the 
disease  to  flight.  The  Chaldsean  magicians,  who, 
besides  the  astrologers  of  the  same  nationality,  infested 
various  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  later  days, 
claimed  the  same  power  over  sickness,  and  there  are 
several  stories  in  Greek  and  Latin  literature  of  sup- 
posed cures  performed  by  this  class  of  impostors, 
lamblichus  gives  an  account  of  a  girl,  thought  to  be 
dead,  who  was  restored  to  life  by  a  Chaldsean. 


410  NEW    LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Yet  it  would  seem  not  improbable  that  the 
Chaldsean  magic  had  a  good  result.  The  use  of 
magical  herbs  gradually  led  to  a  discovery  of  the 
real  medical  properties  of  some  among  them,  and  so, 
as  Chaldaean  astrology  finally  brought  into  existence 
the  science  of  astronomy,  in  the  same  way  Chalda^an 
magic  brought  into  existence  the  science  of  medicine. 
Some  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  already  appear  to 
contain  partly  medical  prescriptions  mixed  up  with 
magical  practices. 

This  ancient  sorcery  of  the  Accadians  and  Baby- 
lonians was,  like  the  other  branches  of  their  lore,  the 
property  of  the  priests,  and  closely  connected  with 
religion.  It  is  another  example  of  the  connection  of 
religion  in  the  earliest  times  with,  all  the  manifesta- 
tions of  social  energy  and  all  the  efforts  of  civilization. 
In  a  society  iti  which  the  king  was  high  priest,  and 
war  was  undertaken  solely  in  the  service  of  the  gods, 
we  cannot  be  surprised  to  find  all  branches  of  learning 
also  in  the  hands  of  the  priesthood,  and  all  branches  of 
art  proceeding  from  a  religious  motive. 

The  library  of  Sardanapalus  also  contains  many 
specimens  of  purely  religious  literature  in  the  form  of 
prayers  and  hymns  which  were  repeated  during  the 
religious  solemnities  ;  and  one  or  two  specimens  of  these 
have  been  given  above.  But  the  branch  of  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  literature  which  still  interests  us  most 
is  the  historical  branch — the  records  of  the  kings,  of 
which  such  a  number  have  been  found.  The  principal 
historical  documents  are  the  inscribed  slabs  which  lined 


THE   CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA.      411 

the  walls  of  the  palaces  in  parts,  including  the  bas- 
reliefs  partly  covered  with  inscriptions,  of  which  we 
have  spoken,  and  the  clay  cylinders. 

The  latter  are  a  remarkable  phenomenon  among 
literary  documents,  for  it  is  quite  clear  that  they  were 
not  written,  as  history  is  written  now,  simply  for  the 
purpose  of  recording  events  for  the  instruction  of  later 
times.  They  were  not  put  up  on  the  walls  or  stored  in 
libraries,  but  they  were  buried  in  cavities  made  for 
them  at  the  corners  of  palaces  or  temples;  and  they 
contained  careful  instructions  to  those  who,  in  the 
event  of  the  ruin  or  restoration  of  the  temple,  might 
find  them  to  restore  them  to  their  places  with  religious 
rites,  sacrificing  victims  and  pouring  out  oil.  They 
were  therefore  intended  to  be  read  only  in  case  of  the 
restoration  of  the  building ;  and  if  the  latter  took 
place,  they  gave  to  the  restorer  full  information  about 
the  original  builder,  with  details  of  his  campaigns  and 
hunting  expeditions,  and  an  account  of  his  erection  of 
the  structure  in  question.  In  this  way  they  ensured 
full  credit  for  the  builder,  and  removed  the  possibility 
of  the  restorer's  taking  to  himself  credit  which  did  not 
rightfully  belong  to  him.  Fearful  curses  were  invoked 
on  those  who  should  fail  to  preserve  the  record  of  the 
true  builder;  and,  accordingly,  the  restorer  not  only 
obeyed  the  instructions  to  place  the  cylinder  back  in  its 
place,  but  also  scrupulously  named  the  original  builder 
in  his  own  records,  and  took  no  more  credit  to  himself 
than  was  due  to  him  for  his  restorations.  These  rules 
of  architectural  etiquette  are  seen  to  have  been  observed 


412  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

by  Nabonidus*  in  particular,  and  are  illustrated  by 
passages  in  his  annals,  as  well  as  in  those  of  former 
kings.  Thus  architecture  was  undertaken  in  the  service 
and  under  the  sanction  of  religion,  like  the  other 
branches  of  art.  This  is  true  not  only,  as'  we  might  ex- 
pect, in  the  case  of  the  erection  of  temples,  but  also  in 
the  construction  of  royal  palaces,  fortresses,  and  city  walls. 
The  king  was  the  servant  and  representative  of  the  gods, 
and  his  city  and  his  house  were  protected  and  favoured 
by  them,  as  well  as  their  own  dwellings,  the  temples. 

We  know  hardly  anything  of  Assyrian  or  Baby- 
lonian music,  as,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  it 
might  be  expected.  Only  in  some  of  the  bas-reliefs 
we  see  musicians,  with  various  stringed  and  wind 
instruments — "  harps  and  organs  "  f — who  came  out  to 
welcome  the  conqueror  at  the  head  of  his  army,  and 
who  took  part  in  religious  rites.  When  Sardanapalus 
offered  to  the  gods  the  lions  that  he  had  slain  in  his 
hunting  expeditions,  and  poured  oil  and  wine  over 
them,  musicians  accompanied  the  rite  with  their  music, 
and  probably  hymns  in  Accadian  were  sung.  Quintus 
Curtius  speaks  of  the  Babylonian  priests  singing  hymns 
when  they  went  out  to  meet  Alexander.^  The  prophet 
Isaiah  speaks  of  the  pomp  of  the  king  of  Babylon 
and  of  the  "  noise  of  his  viols."  And  the  well-known 
passage  of  Daniel  gives  an  enumeration  of  the  instru- 
ments emplo}7ed  in  honour  of  the  golden  image,  when 
the  sounds  of  "all  kinds  of  music"  were  the  signal  for 
tlie  worshippers  to  fall  upon  their  knees. 

*  Sue  page  143  ff.  f  Genesis  iv.  2L  J  See  page  18. 


THE  CULTURE  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BASYLOX1A.      413 

An  immense  number  of  the  Babylonian  inscrip- 
tions brought  to  England  are  commercial  and  legal 
documents,  and  have  already  been  spoken  of.* 
These  bear  witness  to  the  great  wealth  of  the 
country,  to  its  commercial  activity  and  its  financial 
developments,  to  the  riches  of  its  priesthood,  to  the 
high  development  of  its  laws  concerning  property,  and 
the  care  with  which  they  were  enforced ;  and,  in  fact, 
point  to  an  exceedingly  high  state  of  social  organisation, 
under  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  successors,  such  as  in 
some  points  was,  perhaps,  hardly  realized  by  any  other 
nation  of  antiquity,  not  excepting  the  Romans.  All 
this  illustrates  what  is  said  by  the  prophets  about 
Babylon,  which,  according  to  them,  was  only  ruined 
by  its  false  system  of  religion.  Babylon  was  the  "  glory 
of  kingdoms,  the  beauty  of  the  Chaldees'  excellency." 
The  allusions  of  the  prophets  to  its  wealth  and  pros- 
perity, and  the  greatness  of  its  buildings,  have  already 
been  quoted.  But  all  this  only  served  to  increase  the 
astonishment  and  awe  felt  by  men  when  the  news  at 
last  arrived  that  Babylon  was  fallen. 

*  See  Chapter  XL 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

ASSYRIAN    AND    BABYLONIAN    RELIGION.* 

THE  Babylonians,  as  well  as  the  Assyrians,  who  held 
the  same  religious  beliefs  as  the  former,  believed  that 
the  earth  had  the  form  of  a  vast  mountain  rising  out 
of  the  ocean,  or  "  deep,"  which  entirely  surrounded  it. 
The  earth  was  not,  however,  according  to  the  Chaldean 
philosophers,  a  solid  body,  but  was  hollow  ;  and  under 
the  vast  subterranean  vault  lay  the  region  of  the  dead, 
which  they  named  Aralu.  The  earth  was  divided  into 
seven  concentric  zones ;  and,  corresponding  to  these, 
there  were  seven  circles  of  Hades,  divided  from  one 
another  by  walls  and  gates.  Besides  this  division  of 
the  earth  into  zones,  it  was  also  marked  off  into  four 
equal  quarters,  which  were  denominated  the  "  Four 
Regions  ";  and  over  these  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
princes,  in  their  pride,  often  claimed  the  right  of 
dominion ;  for  it  will  be  remembered  that  "  King  of 
the  Four  Regions  "  is  one  of  their  most  frequently 
recurring  titles. 

Above  the  earth  was  set  the  firmament  of  heaven, 

*  For  all  that  is  known  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  religion  and 
cosmology,  see  Professor  Sayce's  "  Hibbert  Lectures,"  and  Jensen,  Kos- 
mologie  der  Bdbylonier. 


ASSYRIAN   AND    BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  415 

the  vault  of  which  enclosed  the  earth  and  the  terrestrial 
ocean,  which  surrounded  it.  Above  this  vault  was  the 
heavenly  ocean,  the  waters  of  which  were  prevented 
from  deluging  the  earth  by  the  interposition  of  the 
firmament,  upon  which  they  rested.  Over  this  heavenly 
ocean  there  was  the  innermost  heaven :  the  dwelling  of 
the  gods.  Beneath  the  vault  of  the  firmament  of  heaven, 
and  immediately  above  the  earth,  the  stars  were  fixed, 
and  the  sun  and  moon  and  five  planets  moved  in  paths 
appointed  for  them.  The  fixed  stars  formed  a  mys- 
terious "  writing "  on  the  heavenly  vault ;  and  this 
"  writing "  was  studied  by  the  astrologers,  who  read 
the  destinies  of  men  therein ;  the  constellations  were 
a  kind  of  heavenly  hieroglyphics.  On  the  east  and  on 
the  west  were  doors  in  heaven,  from  which  the  sun 
issued  in  the  morning  and  into  which  he  entered  in 
the  evening ;  hence  the  sunrise  and  sunset  were  named 
the  "  coming  forth  "  and  "  entering  in  "  of  the  sun. 

The  sun  and  moon  and  planets  were  worshipped 
by  the  Babylonians  as  gods.  Of  Shamash,  the  "  Sun- 
god,"  and  Sin,  the  "  Moon-god,"  frequent  mention  has 
already  been  made.  Of  the  rest  of  the  planets — for  the 
sun  and  moon  were  also  included  under  this  category — 
Jupiter  was  identified  with  Merodach,  Venus  with 
Ishtar  or  Ashtoreth,  Mars  with  Nergal,  Mercury  with 
Nebo,  and  Saturn  with  Ninib.  These  were  the  names 
which  the  planets  bore  when  looked  upon  as  divinities. 
When  considered  astrologically  or  astronomically,  they 
had  other  names,  chiefly  of  Accadian  origin  ;  and  it  is 
an  interesting  confirmation  of  modern  researches  that 


416  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

the  Greek  lexicographer,  Hesychius,  lias  preserved  tlie 
names  given  to  the  planets  by  the  Babylonians,  in 
forms  closely  agreeing  with  those  resulting  from  the 
decipherments  of  the  cuneiform  characters. 

The  first  creation  of  the  universe  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  recorded  in  the  sacred  literature  of  Baby- 
lonia. We  are  told  by  Greek  writers  that  the  Chaldsean 
philosophers  believed  in  the  eternity  of  matter,  and  this 
statement  is  borne  out  by  the  cuneiform  inscriptions. 
The  latter  represent  the  world  as  originally  in  a  state 
of  chaos,  and  covered  by  the  waters  of  the  deep  ;  there 
were  no  living  beings,  and  none  of  the  gods  had  come 
into  existence.  The  abyss  was  the  father,  and  the 
ocean  of  chaos  was  the  mother  of  all  things.  The  first 
offspring  of  the  ocean  and  the  abyss  was  the  great  god 
Lakhmu,  with  his  brother  Lakhamu,  who  were  con- 
ceived as  a  sort  of  primeval  monsters  :  the  evil  brood 
of  chaos.  Ages  afterwards,  the  gods  An-sar  and  Ki-sar 
were  also  born  of  the  abyss  and  the  chaotic  ocean ;  these 
beings  represent  the  first  division  of  heaven  and  earth, 
as  their  names  imply.  Of  these  two  principles,  after 
long  ages,  the  three  great  gods  Anu,  Bel,  and  Ea  were 
born  ;  and  Bel  was  the  creator  of  that  order  of  things 
which  we  now  see.  According  to  other  accounts,  Ea 
was  the  creator,  and  is  spoken  of  as  "  the  potter," 
because  he  formed  man  out  of  clay.  But  in  the 
accounts  preserved  by  Berosus  and  Damascius,  and  in 
the  legend  of  Bel-Merodach  and  the  dragon  of  chaos, 
of  which  we  have  the  original  version  in  cuneiform 
characters,  as  well  as  according  to  the  new  account  of 


ASSYRIAN  AND    BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  417 

the  creation  discovered  by  Mr.  Pinches  and  quoted 
above,  *  it  is  Bel-Merodach,  the  great  god  of  Babylon, 
who  performs  the  functions  of  creator.  The  fight 
between  Bel-Merodach  and  the  ocean  of  chaos,  per- 
sonified as  a  terrible  monster,  with  claws  and  the  head 
of  a  savage  beast,  symbolizes  the  struggle  of  light  and 
darkness.  When  Merodach  had  overcome  the  mather 
of  chaos  and  her  brood,  he  divided  her  into  two,  and 
formed  the  creatures  of  heaven  and  earth  out  of  the 
two  halves. 

The  tutelary  god  of  Babylon,  Bel-Merodach,  is 
several  times  named  by  the  Hebrew  prophets.  Jere- 
miah speaks  of  him  as  a  personification  of  the  city  which 
he  was  believed  to  protect  and  govern,  and  which  was 
his  proper  home  and  residence  : — 

"  I  will  punish  Bel  in  Babylon,  and  I  will  bring  forth  out  of  his 
mouth  that  which  he  hath  swallowed  up ;  and  the  nations  shall  not 
flow  together  any  more  unto  him." 

According  to  the  same  figure,  which  typifies  the 
city  under  the  name  of  its  presiding  deity,  Jeremiah 
speaks  of  the  fall  of  Babylon  as  the  destruction  of 
Merodach  : — 

"Declare  ye  among  the  nations,  and  publish,  and  set  up  a 
standard ;  publish,  and  conceal  not ;  say  :  Babylon  is  taken ;  Bel  is 
confounded  ;  Merodach  is  broken  in  pieces." 

It  was  a  sign  of  the  pre-eminence  of  this  god  in 
Babylonia  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  Babylonian 
names  are  compounded  of  the  name  of  Bel  or  Merodach, 
together  with  other  elements.  Among  those  most 

*  See  Chapter  xiii.,  p.  325. 
B   I) 


418  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

familiar  to  us  may  be  mentioned :  Merodach-baladan, 
which  is  a  corrupt  form  of  Marduk-ablu-iddin,  signify- 
ing, "  Merodach  lias  given  a  son";  Belshazzar,  which 
means  "  Bel  defends  the  king  "  ;  *  Evil-Merodach,  or 
*•'  the  Man  of  Merodach."  Besides  these  names,  so  well 
known  to  us  from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  the  legal  and 
commercial  documents  of  Babylonia  supply  us  with  a 
host  of  names  formed  in  a  similar  manner,  among  the 
commonest  of  which  are  :  Bel-aMe-iddin,  or  "  Bel  gives 
brothers  "  ;  Bel-cpush,  or  "  Bel  creates  "  ;  Bel-uballit,  or 
"  Bel  gives  life  "  ;  Bel-ukin,  or  "  Bel  establishes  "  ;  Bel- 
shum-ish/cun,  or  "  Bel  sets  the  name  "  ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  MarduJc-iddin,  or  "  Merodach  gives  "  ;  Marduk-etir, 
or  "  Merodach  preserves  "  ;  Marduk-irba,  or  "  Merodach 
multiplies " ;  Marduk-zir-ibni,  or  "  Merodach  creates 
offspring.'' 

In  the  last  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  according 
to  the  version  of  the  Septuagint,  the  god  Bel,  his  image, 
his  temple,  and  his  worship  are  spoken  of.  It  is  quite 
in  accordance  with  the  Babylonian  records  that  Cyrus 
is,  in  this  chapter,  represented  as  a  devout  worshipper 
of  Bel- Merodach, f  through  whose  favour  he  was  sup- 
posed to  have  taken  possession  of  Babylonia. 

As  it  has  been  frequently  observed,  the  principal 
temple  of  Babylon  was  that  called  Bit-Saggil,  dedicated 
to  Bel- Merodach.  The  magnificence  of  this  temple  is 
described  by  Herodotus  and  Ctesias.  The  images  and 
furniture  which  it  contained  were  overlaid  with  gold  and 
silver.  A  cuneiform  inscription  on  a  clay  tablet  gives  an 

*  See  page  304  f  See  above,  pp.  14  and  305. 


ASSYRIAN  AND   BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  419 

account  of  a  temple  which  is  apparently  to  be  identified 
with  Bit-Saggil,  and  George  Smith  published  a  summary 
of  the  contents  of  this  document  in  1875.  According 
to  this  account,  the  length  of  the  grand  court-  yard  of  the 
temple  is  estimated  at  1,156  English  feet,  and  its  breadth 
at  900  feet.  Around  the  court-yard  were  six  gates,  each 
of  which  had  its  own  name :  there  was  the  grand  gate, 
the  gate  of  the  rising  sun,  the  great  gate,  the  gate  of 
the  colossi,  the  gate  of  the  canal,  and  the  gate  of  the 
tower.  In  the  centre  was  a  platform  upon  which  rose 
the  great  tower  in  stages,  which  formed  the  principal 
feature  of  the  temple.  The  tower  had  seven  storeys, 
gradually  diminishing  in  length  and  breadth  from  the 
bottom  to  the  top.  The  lower  stage  was  300  feet 
square  and  110  feet  high  ;  the  second  was  260  feet 
square  and  60  feet  high ;  the  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and 
sixth  were  each  20  feet  high,  and  respectively  200,  170, 
140,  and  110  feet  square;  the  seventh  and  topmost 
storey  was  80  feet  long,  70  feet  broad,  and  50  feet  high. 
Thus  the  whole  tower  was  300  feet  in  height ;  but  as  it 
stood  upon  a  platform,  the  height  of  the  summit  above 
the  plain  was  more  than  the  figure  here  stated.  The 
topmost  storey  was  used  by  the  priestly  astronomers  for 
their  observations.  An  inclined  passage  wound  round  the 
outside  and  led  to  the  summit.* 

Around  the  base  of  this  lofty  tower  were  a  number  of 
small  temples  or  chapels,  dedicated  to  Bel-Merodach 
himself  and  to  other  gods ;  for,  besides  being  the 
sanctuary  of  the  great  presiding  god  of  Babylon,  Bit- 

*  See  page  27L 
B    B    2 


420  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

Saggil  was  a  pantheon  in  which  all  the  gods  of  the  em- 
pire had  shrines.  The  lesser  gods,  although  in  their 
own  cities  they  might  be  supreme,  came  to  Babylon  only 
to  pay  their  respects  to  Bel-Merodach.  On  the  festival 
of  the  new  year  the  great  god  solemnly  took  his  seat  in 
his  temple,  and  the  gods  of  heaven  and  earth  reverently 
bowed  before  their  king. 

Many  of  the  rulers  of  Babylonia — both  the  Assyrian 
and  the  native  sovereigns — have  left  us  records  of  the 
gifts  that  they  offered  to  the  temple  of  Bit- Saggil,  and 
its  companion  temple,  Bit-Zida,  in  Borsippa.  The 
"  Maintainer  of  Bit-Saggil  and  Bit-Zida "  was  the 
common  title  of  these  princes  from  early  times,  and  is 
to  be  read  on  all  the  thousands  of  bricks  that  have 
been  extracted  from  the  ruins  of  Babylon  for  the  con- 
struction of  modern  towns  or  villages.  Most  of  these 
bricks  are  of  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar ;  and  this,  in 
fact,  was  the  prince  who,  so  far  as  the  records  tell  us,  did 
most  to  beautify  these  great  temples.  Nebuchadnezzar 
tells  us  in  his  inscriptions  that  he  repaired  the  outer  walls 
of  Bit-Saggil,  and  overlaid  some  of  the  walls  with  gold  : — 

"  His  chamber,  the  royal  chamber,  the  lordly  chamber,  conse- 
crated to  the  leader  of  the  gods,  to  the  prince  Merodach,  which  a 
former  king  had  covered  with  silver,  I  overlaid  with  bright  gold." 

In  illustration  of  the  adornment  of  temple  walls  with 
gold,  it  should  be  mentioned  that  thin  plates  of  gold, 
with  the  gilded  nails  which  had  formerly  fastened 
them  in  their  place,  were  found  among  the  remains  of 
the  staged  tower  at  Abu  Shahrein,  the  ancient  Eridu; 
they  were  buried  among  the  rubbish  at  the  summit  of 


ASSYRIAN  AND    BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  421 

the   tower,   and    must  have  served  to  gild    the  roof  or 
cupola  which  formed  its  crown. 

Nebuchadnezzar  provided  no  less  lavishly  for  the 
services  of  the  temple.  He  gave  golden  vessels  for  the 
use  of  the  sanctuary.  Many  of  the  treasures  which  he 
had  carried  off  as  spoil,  during  his  campaigns  between 
"  the  upper  sea  and  the  lower  sea,"  were  dedicated  to 
Merodach.  He  says  'himself  :— 

"  He,  the  revered  prince,  the  leader  of  the  gods,  the  prince 
Merodach,  heard  my  supplication  and  received  my  prayer ;  he  laid 
the  fear  of  his  godhead  in  my  heart ;  I  feared  his  glory.  In  his  high 
service  I  passed  through  distant  lands,  remote  mountain  ranges,  from 
the  upper  to  the  lower  sea — precipitous  roads,  closed  paths,  where 
my  march  was  impeded,  where  there  was  no  foothold,  impassable 
ways — ways  through  thirsty  deserts.  I  subdued  rebels,  I  took  my 
adversaries  captive,  I  ruled  the  land,  I  made  the  inhabitants  pros- 
perous, and  carried  away  the  wicked  and  the  rebellious  into  distant 
regions  ;  I  brought  silver  and  gold,  precious  stones,  copper,  precious 
woods,  cedar,  precious  stores  of  all  kinds,  the  products  of  the  moun- 
tains, the  products  of  the  sea,  rich  gifts,  splendid  offerings ;  and  I 
laid  them  before  Merodach  in  Babylon." 

The  Babylonian  temples  must  actually  have  "  shone 
like  the  sun,"  as  Nebuchadnezzar  himself  says.  Per- 
haps it  was  the  splendour  of  the  gilded  domes  and 
walls  that  made  the  prophet  speak  of  Babylon  as  "the 
golden  city."  * 

An  epithet  frequently  given  to  Bel-Merodach  is  the 
"  merciful  one,"  and  he  was  said  to  restore  the  dead 
to  life. 

A  prayer,  recited  before  his  image  by  the  priests  at 
the  new  year's  festival,  runs  as  follows  : — 

*  Isaiah  xiv.  4. 


422  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  O  Bel,  who  in  thy  strength  hast  no  equal  !  O  Bel,  blessed 
sovereign,  lord  of  the  world,  seeking  after  the  favour  of  the  great 
gods ;  the  lord  who  by  thy  glance  hast  destroyed  the  strong,  lord  of 
kings,  light  of  mankind,  establisher  of  laith  !  O  Bel,  thy  sceptre  is 
Babylon;  thy  crown  is  Borsippa,  the  wide  heaven  is  the  dwelling- 
place  of  thy  liver.  O  lord  of  the  world,  light  of  the  spirits 
of  heaven,  utterer  of  blessings,  who  is  there  whose  mouth  murmurs 
not  of  thy  righteousness,  and  speaks  not  of  thy  glory,  and  celebrates 
not  thy  dominion]  0  lord  of  the  world,  who  dwellest  in  the  temple 
of  the  Sun,  reject  not  the  hands  that  are  raised  to  thee ;  be  merciful 
to  thy  city  of  Babylon  ;  incline  thy  face  to  thy  temple  of  Bit-Saggil ; 
and  grant  the  prayers  of  thy  people,  the  sons  of  Babylon  ! "  * 

There  seems  to  have  been  a  certain  inconsistency 
among  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  Babylonians ;  and, 
although  there  was  a  separate  Sun -god,  whose  principal 
temple  was  at  Sippara,  yet  Bel-Merodach  himself  seems 
to  have  been  often  identified  with  the  sun,  as  well  as 
with  the  planet  Jupiter.  These  are  points,  however, 
which  require  further  investigation. 

The  son  of  Bel-Merodach  was  the  almost  equally 
powerful  divinity  Nebo,  whose  name  is  coupled  with 
that  of  his  father  by  the  Hebrew  prophet,!  when  he 
predicts  the  destruction  of  the  idols  of  Babylon  at  the 
fall  of  that  city  : — 

"  Bel  boweth  down,  Nebo  stoopeth.  .  .  .  They  stoop,  they 
bow  down  together ;  they  could  not  deliver  the  burden,  but  them- 
selves are  gone  into  captivity." 

Nebo  was  the  special  patron  of  the  literary  class  in 
Babylonia,  and  consequently  in  Assyria,  whither  the 
religious  traditions  of  Babylonia  flowed.  His  principal 
sanctuary  was  the  second  great  temple  of  Babylonia, 

*  Professor  Sayce's  translation.  f  Isaiah  xlvi.  1. 


ASSYRIAN  AND    BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  423 

Bit-Zida  at  Borsippa,  called  by  the  Jews  the  "Tower 
of  Babylon."  This  temple  seems  to  have  been  no  less 
magnificent  than  its  fellow,  Bit-Saggil,  and  was,  equally 
with  the  latter,  the  object  of  the  generous  devotion  of 
the  kings.  Nebuchadnezzar  completed  its  summit,  and 
adorned  it  with  cedar,  bronze,  silver,  and  gold.  The 
king  thus  prays  Nebo  to  reward  him  for  his  gifts  :-- 

"O  Nebo,  true  son,  sublime  messenger,  majestic,  beloved  of 
Merodach,  look  favourably  upon  my  pious  works  :  grant  me  long 
life  and  enjoyment  of  life ;  let  my  throne  be  firm,  my  reign  long ; 
let  my  enemies  be  overthrown,  let  me  subdue  the  lands  of  the 
enemy.  Decree  length  of  days,  and  write  down  life  for  me  upon 
thy  faithful  tablet,  which  determines  the  circle  of  heaven  and  earth. 
Make  my  deeds  pleasing  in  the  sight  of  Merodach,  the  king  of 
heaven  and  earth,  thy  father  and  progenitor,  and  speak  in  my 
favour.  Let  the  words  '  Nebuchadnezzar  is  a  king  who  adorns  the 
temples  '  be  in  thy  mouth  !  " 

A  monument  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  restoration  of 
Bit-Zida  is  now  in  the  British  Museum,  in  the  form  of 
a  bronze  threshold  brought  from  the  ruins  of  Birs- 
Nimroud,  which  are  the  remains  of  the  great  temple. 
Upon  this  bronze  threshold  are  the  following  words  : — 

"  I,  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  maintainer  of  the  temples 
of  Bit-Saggil  and  Bit-Zida,  princely  son  of  Nabopolassar,  king  of 
Babylon,  have  restored  for  Nebo,  the  high  lord,  who  makes  the  days 
of  my  life  long,  his  temple,  Bit-Zida,  in  Borsippa." 

Nebo  was  the  scribe  and  counsellor  of  the  gods,  and 
in  this  capacity  he  became  the  guardian  of  writing  and 
literature.  He  communicated  his  deep  wisdom  to  the 
priests  of  Babylonia.  He  seems  to  have  interceded 
with  Bel-Merodach  in  favour  of  his  worshippers.  His 


424  NEW    LIGll'l     ON    THE    BIBLE. 

very  name  means  the  "  speaker "  or  "  prophet,"  and 
conies  from  the  same  root  as  the  name  which  the 
Hebrews  applied  to  their  prophets  when  the  latter 
were  no  longer  called  "  seers."  * 

In  the  British  Museum  are  two  large  stone  statues 
of  Nebo,  brought  from  his  temple  at  Calah.  They 
were  set  up  in  the  reign  of  Ramman-nirar  III. 
(B.C.  812-783)  by  the  governor  of  Calah,  who  caused 
the  following  inscription  to  be  engraved  upon  them  : — 

"  To  the  god  Nebo,  the  high  ruler,  the  son  of  Bit-Saggil ;  the 
clear-sighted,  the  well-placed,  the  princely,  the  sublime  son  of 
Nukimmut,  whose  commands  are  received;  the  patron  of  arts  (?), 
to  whom  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  are  entrusted  ;  the  all- 
knowing,  whose  name  is  the  '  attentive  one ' ;  the  holder  of  the 
writing-reed,  .  .  .  the  merciful,  the  majestic,  who  possesses 
wisdom  ;  .  the  beloved  of  Bel,  the  lord  of  lords ;  whose 

power  is  unequalled  ;  without  whom  no  counsel  is  taken  in  heaven  ; 
the  compassionate,  the  gracious ;  whose  rule  is  good,  who  dwells  in 
Bit-Zida  within  Calah  ;  the  great  lord,  his  ruler;  has  Biltarsi-iluma, 
governor  of  Calah  and  other  cities,  caused  this  image  to  be  made 
and  consecrated,  for  the  life  of  Ramman-nirar,  king  of  Assyria,  his 
lord,  and  for  the  life  of  Sammuramat,  the  wife  of  the  palace,  his 
lady,  and  for  his  own  life,  that  he  may  see  long  days  and  .  . 
years,  may  have  peace  for  himself  and  his  family,  and  may  be 
spared  from  sickness. 

"O  future  generations,  trust  in  Nebo,  and  trust  in  no  other 
god  !  " 

From  this  inscription  it  seems  that  Nebo  possessed 
a  temple  at  Calah  of  the  same  name  as  his  principal 
sanctuary  at  Borsippa.  In  a  similar  manner  there  was, 
in  the  temple  of  Bit-Saggil,  a  chapel,  dedicated  to 
Nebo,  and  also  called  Bit-Zida. 

*  1  Samuel  ix.  9. 


ASSYRIAN  AND    BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  425 

Exactly  as  the  Babylonians  formed  many  proper 
names  with  the  name  of  their  chief  god  Bel,  or 
Merodach,  so  they  formed  others  with  the  name  of 
Nebo.  The  name  of  the  great  conqueror  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, or,  in  the  more  correct  form  used  by  Jeremiah, 
Nebuchadrezzar,  is  a  reproduction  in  Hebrew  of  the 
Babylonian  name  Nabu-kudur-usur,  or  "  Nebo  defends 
the  crown."  The  father  of  Nebuchadnezzar  was  Nabu- 
apal-mur :  a  name  altered  by  the  Greeks  into  Nabo- 
polassaros,  and  signifying  "  Nebo  defends  the  son." 
The  last  king  of  Babylon  was  named  Nabd-naid,  or,  by 
the  Greeks,  Nabonidos,  Nabonnedos,  Labunetos  ;  and 
this  name  means  "  Nebo  exalts."  The  first  king  of 
Babylon  who  appears  in  the  Canon  of  Ptolemy  is 
Nabonassar,  or,  more  correctly,  Nabii-ndxir,  that  is  to 
say,  "  Nebo  is  the  defender."  The  captain  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's guard,  who  was  left  in  charge  of  Jerusalem 
and  carried  the  Jewish  people  into  captivity,  was 
Nebuzaradan,  more  correctly,  Nabii-zir-idditi,  or,  "  Nebo 
gives  offspring."  The  Kab-saris,  or  chief  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's eunuchs,  was  Nebushasban,  or,  in  the 
native  form,  Nabu-Shezibanni  :  "  Nebo,  save  me  !  " 

Mention  has  been  made  above  of  the  Babylonian 
Pluto,  who  was  called  Nergal.*  He  was  especially  the 
local  deity  of  Cuth,  or  Cutha,  and  appears  as  such  in 
the  passage  of  the  Second  Book  of  Kings  where  it  is 
stated  that  the  Babylonian  captives,  deported  from  their 
native  city  of  Cutha,  in  order  to  people  the  desolate 
country  of  Samaria,  introduced  the  worship  of  Nergal 

*  See  page  285. 


426  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

into  the  latter  region,  and  set  up  his  images  there. 
Prom  very  early  days  Nergal  had  been  worshipped  in 
the  old  city  of  Cutha,  which  was  probably  founded  by 
the  Accadians,  but  was  soon  captured  or  colonised  by 
their  Semitic  neighbours.  The  inscription  of  Dungi, 
king  of  TJr,  quoted  above,*  shows  that  in  his  time  this 
divinity  was  already  the  tutelary  god  of  Cuth ;  and  later 
Babylonian  inscriptions  refer  to  the  same  city  as  the 
earthly  home  of  the  king  of  Hades. 

Many  proper  names  were  compounded  with  the 
name  of  Nergal  in  Baby  Ionia.  First  comes  that  of 
Nebuchadnezzar's  son-in-law,  the  King  Neriglissar,  or 
Nergal-xhar-usur,  which  was  also  the  name  of  the  great 
officer  called  the  Bab-mag, f  who  took  part  in  the  siege 
of  Jerusalem  under  Nebuchadnezzar,  and,  when  the  city 
was  taken,  came  in  and  sat  in  the  middle  gate,  with  the 
other  princes  and  officers.  Then  there  are  many  names 
which  occur  in  the  commercial  and  legal  documents, 
such  as  Neryal-akh-iddin,  or  ''Nergal  gives  a  brother"; 
Nergal-ulallit,  or  "  Nergal  gives  life  "  ;  Nergal-8ha,zibaunit 
or  "  Nergal,  save  me  !  " 

Some  others  of  the  Babylonian  gods  are  mentioned 
in  the  Bible,  through  their  being  worshipped  in  Syria 
and  Phoenicia,  as  well  as  in  Mesopotamia.  The  great 
Syrian  god  Kimmon,  in  whose  house  Naaman  begged 
that  he  might  still  be  allowed  to  bow  down,  was 
worshipped  also  by  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians. 
Besides  the  name  of  Kimmon,  he  had  another  :  that  of 
Hudad ;  and  the  prophet  Zechariah,  uniting  the  two 
*  See  page  150,  f  Jeremiah  xxxix.  3  and  13. 


ASSYRIAN  AND    BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  427 

names,  speaks  of  "  the  mourning  of  Hadadrirnmon  in 
the  valley  of  Megiddon."  A  Babylonian  document 
expressly  informs  us  that  Addu — that  is  to  say,  Hadad 
— was  a  name  given  in  Syria  to  the  god  Eimmon  ;  and 
the  name  of  Kip-Adda  of  Byblus,  now  familiar  to  us 
from  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets,  is  often  written  with 
the  same  cuneiform  ideogram  which  expresses  the  name 
of  Eimmon,  or  Ramman,  in  the  texts  of  Babylonia  and 
Assyria,  although  it  is  sometimes  written  phonetically 
as  Ri-ip-Ad-da.  In  Syria,  Eimmon  or  Hadad  was 
recognised  as  a  personification  of  the  sun ;  in  Babylonia 
and  Assyria  he  is  more  especially  the  god  of  the  at- 
mosphere, and  rules  the  weather.  Perhaps  he  owed 
his  importance  in  that  region,  which  suffers  so  terribly 
from  the  action  of  the  floods,  to  the  belief  that  the 
latter  were  under  his  control.  He  is  sometimes  invoked 
in  maledictory  passages  that  he  may  employ  his  power 
to  cause  damage  to  some  enemy.  An  instance  of  this 
is  seen  in  the  curses  *  poured  forth  upon  those  who 
might  in  future  days  disturb  or  destroy  the  records  of 
the  royal  architects  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  which 
are  placed  upon  the  walls  of  their  buildings  or  buried 
in  cavities  among  the  foundations.  Eimmon  is  im- 
plored to  drown  the  lands  of  the  guilty  with  his  floods, 
or  to  strike  the  sinners  with  his  thunderbolts.  The 
thunder  was  the  voice  of  Eimmon. 

Various  proper  names  were  formed  with  the  name  of 
the  god  Eimmon ;  for  example,  that  of  Eamman-nirar, 
which  belonged  to  three  kings  of  Assyria  known  to 

*  See  page  142. 


428  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

us.  Other  instances  are  Ramman-nasir,  or  "  Rimmon 
defends  " ;  Manwian-s/tum-iddin,  or  "  Rimmon  gives  the 
name  "  ;  and  similar  compounds. 

Dagon  appears  in  the  Bible  especially  as  the  god  of 
the  Philistines ;  but  he  was  also  worshipped  in  Assyria 
and  Babylonia,  although  his  name  does  not  appear  so 
frequently  in  the  texts  as  those  of  the  gods  already 
mentioned. 

Tammuz  was  a  Syrian  divinity,  whose  death  was 
mourned  by  the  women  at  midsummer.  Ezekiel,  in  a 
vision,  saw  the  Israelitish  women  weeping  for  Tammuz  at 
the  gate  of  the  house  of  Jehovah,  and  was  provoked  to  anger 
at  the  sight  of  this  and  other  idolatrous  abominations. 
It  is  well  known  that  Tammuz  was  called  Adonis  by  the 
Greeks,  from  the  Semitic  word  signifying  "  my  lord,"  by 
which  title  he  was  addressed  in  the  religious  ceremonies 
of  his  festival.  It  is  also  generally  recognised  at  present 
that  Tammuz,  or  Adonis,  was  a  personification  of  the 
fresh  vegetation  of  spring,  slain  by  the  fierce  rays  of  the 
sun  at  midsummer,  as  Adonis  was  slain  by  the  tusk  of 
the  boar.  In  Babylonian  the  name  appears  as  Duzu, 
the  husband  of  Ishtar,  whom  she  went  to  seek  in  the 
infernal  regions  after  his  death.  The  identity  of  the 
names  is  further  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  Babylonian 
month,  "Duzu,"  appears  in  the  list  of  the  Hebrew 
months  as  Tammuz.  An  allusion  to  the  midsummer 
festival  of  Tammuz  appears  in  the  astronomical  tablet 
discovered  by  Father  Strassmaier,  of  which  an  account 
is  given  above.*  Greek  writers  have  given  us  an 

*  See  page  274. 


ASSYRIAN   AND    BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  429 

account  of  the  solemnities  which  took  place  at  this  festival 
in  Syria,  and  especially  in  Byblus,  the  city  of  Adonis. 
The  women  indulged  in  extravagant  lamentations,  and 
the  withering  of  the  vernal  vegetation  by  the  mid- 
summer sun  was  symbolised  by  the  "  gardens  of 
Adonis  "  —pots  of  earth  filled  with  mould,  in  which  cut 
flowers  and  herbs  were  planted,  that  quickly  faded  away 
and  died. 

Very  much  more  frequently  than  the  last-mentioned 
divinities  is  Ashtoreth,  or  Ishtar,  named  in  the  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  texts.  This  goddess  was  identified  by 
the  Babylonians  with  Venus,  the  evening  star — not  with 
the  moon,  as  by  the  Phoenicians.  There  were  several 
cities  which  claimed  Ishtar  as  their  tutelary  deity ;  and 
perhaps,  to  some  extent,  these  Ishtars  were  looked  upon 
as  different  goddesses.  In  early  inscriptions  of  Baby- 
lonia we  find  the  name  of  Ishtar  of  Erech,  and  also  of 
Ishtar  of  Hallab,  who  was  worshipped  by  Kudurmapuk 
and  Rim-aku,  the  Elamite  princes,  and  by  Khaminu- 
rabi,  the  first  powerful  King  of  Babylon.  In  later  days 
we  meet  with  frequent  mention  of  Ishtar  of  Nineveh 
and  Ishtar  of  Arbela.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
image  of  Ishtar  of  Nina,  or  Nineveh,  was  sent  into 
Egypt  in  the  reign  of  Amenophis  III.,  as  one  of  the 
Tell  el- Amarna  tablets  informs  us.  Another  name  given 
to  the  goddess  Ishtar  was  Nana. 

The  following  prayer,  addressed  to  the  goddess 
Ishtar,  occurs  in  the  annals  of  Sardanapalus,  who  was 
about  to  engage  in  a  war  against  Te-umman,  King  of 
Elam :— 


430  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"  O  Lady  of  Arbela  !  I  am  Sardanapalus,  King  of  Assyria,  the 
creation  of  thy  hands.  ...  I  have  visited  thy  dwelling-place  in 
order  to  restore  the  temples  of  Assyria,  and  to  complete  the  building 
of  the  cities  of  Accad.  .  .  .  Te-uinman,  King  of  Elam  . 
has  set  his  army  in  motion  and  makes  himself  ready  for  battle,  that 
he  may  march  against  Assyria.  O  warlike  one  among  the  gods  .  .  . 
scatter  him  in  the  midst  of  the  battle  ;  send  against  him  a  storm  and 
an  evil  wind." 

In  consequence  of  this  prayer  to  Ishtar  for  her  pro- 
tection, the  goddess  appeared  in  a  dream  to  a  magician 
or  interpreter  of  dreams,  in  the  habit  of  a  warrior  armed 
with  a  bow  and  a  sword,  and  promised  to  go  before  Sar- 
danapalus during  his  campaign,  and  to  ensure  his  victory. 
The  announcement  of  this  dream  inspired  Sardanapalus 
with  the  fullest  confidence,  and  he  marched  against  the 
Elamites  with  the  firm  expectation  of  a  victory,  which 
was  not  slow  to  follow. 

Ishtar  was  one  of  the  principal  divinities  of  Assyria 
and  Babylonia.  She  is  mentioned  on  a  par  with  Bel, 
Nebo,  the  Sun-god,  the  Moon-god,  Eimmon,  Nergal, 
Ninib,  and,  in  Assyria,  with  the  great  national  god  of 
that  country,  Ashur. 

The  last-named  deity  was  unknown  in  Babylonia, 
but  in  Assyria  was  the  greatest  of  all  the  gods,  so  far  as 
any  one  of  them  was  greater  than  the  others.  He  is 
generally  mentioned  first,  and  often  spoken  of  as  "  lord 
of  the  gods  " — a  title,  however,  which  is  not  applied 
consistently  to  any  one  of  the  deities.  The  name  Ashur 
is,  of  course,  identical  with  the  name  of  the  country  of 
Assyria  and  with  that  of  its  earliest  capital,  Ashur,*  the 

*  See  page  142. 


ASSYRIAN   AND    BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  431 

modern  Kalat-Sherkat.  In  all  the  records  of  the 
Assyrian  kings  the  latter  attribute  their  exploits  to  the 
favour  and  assistance  of  Ashur  and  other  £ods.  When 

o 

foreign  princes  refused  to  pay  tribute  to  the  King  of 
Assyria,  this  was  looked  upon  as  a  sin  against  Ashur,  the 
great  god,  and  by  his  command  the  king  undertook  his 
expeditions  into  the  country  of  the  rebels,  and  chastised 
them  for  their  disobedience  to  his  national  deity,  who, 
in  the  bas-reliefs,  appears  as  leading  the  Assyrian  armies 
to  victory,  and  hovering  above  them  in  the  air. 

Nothing  is  clearer  from  the  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian records  than  the  identification  of  the  gods  with 
the  countries  or  cities  over  which  they  presided.  An 
offence  against  Assyria  is  an  offence  against  the  god 
Ashur,  and  an  offence  against  Babylon  is  an  offence 
against  Bel-Merodach.  When  a  city  was  captured  it 
was  the  custom  to  seize  and  carry  away  the  images  of 
the  local  gods,  who  were  held  to  be  vanquished  when 
the  place  over  which  they  presided  was  taken.  This 
idea  is  very  clearly  expressed  in  the  words  of  Senna- 
cherib to  Hezekiah,  whom  he  reproaches  for  trusting 
in  a  God  who  would  be  overcome  like  the  gods  of  the 
nations  : — 

"  Beware  lest  Hezekiah  persuade  you,  saying,  The  Lord  will 
deliver  us.  Hath  any  of  the  gods  of  the  nations  delivered  his  land 
out  of  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Assyria  ? 

"  Where  are  the  gods  of  Hamath  and  Arphad  1  where  are  the 
gods  of  Sepharvaim  1  and  have  they  delivered  Samaria  out  of  my 
hand1? 

"  Who  are  they  among  all  the  gods  of  these  lands  that  have 
delivered  their  land  out  of  my  hand,  that  the  Lord  should  deliver 
Jerusalem  out  of  my  hand  ?  " 


432  NEW  LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

There  are  many  instances  in  the  records  of  the 
carrying  of  the  gods  of  conquered  nations  into  captivity, 
together  with  the  people  whom  they  had  failed  to 
protect.  When  Sardanapalus  sacked  Susa,  he  carried 
off  the  images  of  the  native  gods  and  goddesses  ;  *  and 
thus  he  took  revenge  upon  the  Elamites,  who,  sixteen 
hundred  years  before,  had  carried  off  the  image  of 
Nana  from  Babylonia.  In  the  reign  of  Sennacherib  the 
Assyrians  captured  and  removed  the  gods  of  Erech. 
Esarhaddon  carried  off  the  gods  of  Khazu.  Sometimes, 
instead  of  being  removed,  the  gods  were  burnt.  The 
general  purpose  was,  however,  to  transfer  the  rule  of 
the  country  from  the  conquered  to  the  conquerors  by 
taking  the  gods  to  the  capital  city  of  the  latter,  where, 
it  was  thought,  they  became  subject,  together  with 
their  respective  countries,  to  the  gods  of  the  ruling 
race.  So  the  first  thought,  when  a  change  of  fortune 
was  brought  about,  was  to  bring  back  the  gods  to  their 
own  cities,  where  they  might  again  exercise  an  inde- 
pendent rule.  It  was  in  this  way  that,  when  Assyria 
ceased  to  maintain  her  supremacy  over  Babylonia,  as, 
for  instance,  on  the  accession  of  Shamasb-shum-ukin, 
the  gods  of  Babylon  were  brought  out  of  Assyria  to 
their  own  place. 

The  names  of  several  of  the  local  gods  of  Assyria 
and  Babylonia  have  already  been  mentioned.  Bel- 
Merodach  was  the  local  god  of  Babylon ;  Nergal,  of 
Cutha;  Ishtar,  of  Nineveh,  or  of  Erech,  or  of  Arbela ; 
the  Sun-god  was  the  tutelary  deity  of  Sippara,  and  the 

*  See  page  247. 


ASSYRIAN  AND   BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  433 

Moon-god  of  Ur  ;  and  besides  these,  eacli  city  liad, 
without  doubt,  its  own  local  divinity. 

Besides  the  principal  gods  whom  we  have  men- 
tioned, there  was  an  innumerable  host  of  spirits  and 
divinities  in  the  Babylonian  pantheon.  Many  of  them, 
may  have  been  of  local  importance,  but  we  know  little 
or  nothing  of  them.  Ashur-nasir-pal,  in  an  inscription, 
speaks  of  "  65,000  gods  of  heaven  and  earth."  The 
largest  tablet  in  the  British  Museum  is  one  covered 
with  a  long  list  of  deities.  According  to  a  Semitic 
belief,  each  god  had  a  corresponding  goddess ;  so  Bel 
had  a  wife,  Biltu,  or  Beltis. 

The  idols  of  Babylonia  are  much  spoken  of  by  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  from  whom  we  hear  that  they  were 
often  lavishly  adorned  or  overlaid  with  gold  or  silver ; 
that  they  were  dressed  in  garments  of  bluish- purple  or 
reddish-purple ;  *  that  they  were  carried  in  procession ; 
that  their  number  was  exceedingly  great,  and  that  the 
people  were  enthusiastic  in  their  worship. 

According  to  Jeremiah,  Babylonia  was — 

"  The  land  of  graven  images,  and  they  are  mad  upon  their  idols." 

Isaiah  says  : — 

"  They  lavish  gold  out  of  the  bag,  and  weigh  silver  in  the  balance, 
and  hire  a  goldsmith  ;  and  he  maketh  it  a  god  :  they  fall  down,  yea, 
they  worship. 

"  They  bear  him  upon  the  shoulder,  they  carry  him,  and  set  him 
in  his  place,  and  he  standeth ;  from  his  place  shall  he  not  remove." 

Habakkuk,  speaking  of  the  Babylonians,  exclaims : — 

*  See  page  394  ff. 

c  c 


t34  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

"What  profiteth  the  graven  image  that  the  maker  thereof  hath 
graven  it ;  the  molten  image,  and  a  teacher  of  lies,  that  the  maker  of 
his  work  trusteth  therein,  to  make  dumb  idols  1 

"Woe  unto  him  that  saith  to  the  wood,  Awake;  to  the  dumb 
stone,  Arise,  it  shall  teach  !  Behold,  it  is  laid  over  with  gold  and 
silver,  and  there  is  no  breath  at  all  in  the  midst  of  it." 

In  the  "  epistle  of  Jeremiah  "  to  the  Jews  about  to 
be  taken  as  captives  to  Babylonia,  included  in  the  Book 
of  Baruch,*  there  is  an  account  of  the  temples  and  idols 
of  the  Babylonians  which  quite  corresponds  to  all  that 
we  know  of  them  from  native  sources.  The  writer 
says  that  the  Jews,  when  they  reach  Babylon,  will 
see  gods  of  gold  and  silver,  and  others  simply  of  wood 
or  stone,  carried  about  on  men's  shoulders  in  procession, 
and  striking  awe  into  the  hearts  of  their  worshippers, 
who  bow  down  before  and  behind  them.  The  images 
are  said  to  have  gold  crowns  on  their  heads,  to  wear 
purple  robes,  and  to  hold  sceptres  or  swords  in  their 
hands  ;  their  temples  are  hung  with  many  lamps,  the 
smoke  of  which  made  the  faces  of  the  idols  black ;  many 
animals  were  offered  to  them  in  sacrifice.  A  large  body 
of  priests  was  devoted  to  their  worship  ;  and  it  is  re- 
marked that  the  priests  had  shaven  heads  :  a  custom 
which  may  have  been  borrowed,  like  so  much  of 
Babylonian  religion,  from  the  Accadians,  whose  priests, 
at  least  in  the  time  of  Gudea,  as  we  know  from  his 
statues,  had  closely- shaven  heads. 

Few   images  of  the  gods  have  been  found  in  the 
excavations  made  during  this  century  in  Mesopotamia. 

*  In  the  Vulgate.     Separate  in  the  LXX. 


ASSYRIAN   AND    BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  435 

Naturally,  the  precious  metals  were  not  allowed  to 
remain  unplundered  when  the  temples  fell  into  ruin 
or  were  sacked ;  and  we  are  expressly  told  that  the 
later  Persian  kings  carried  off  golden  images  of  the 
Babylonian  gods.  Only  a  few  small  figures  of  bronze 
and  clay  have  been  disinterred  among  the  ruins  ;  and 
these  are  not  easily  to  be  identified  with  any  of  the  gods 
known  to  us.  There  is  one  notable  exception,  however, 
and  that  is  the  twin  images  of  Nebo  from  Calah,  now 
in  the  British  Museum,  the  inscription  upon  which  has 
been  quoted  above.  These  are  two  stone  figures,  larger 
than  life,  representing  the  god  in  a  standing  posture, 
with  clasped  hands.  On  his  head  he  wears  the  tiara 
with  horns  on  each  side,  appropriated  to  figures  of 
supernatural  beings,  gods,  or  genii.  As  works  of  art, 
the  statues  are  not  to  be  admired ;  the  execution  is 
stiff  and  poor.  On  the  skirt  of  the  robe,  the  folds  of 
which  are  not  indicated,  the  inscription  of  the  donor  is 
engraved  in  large  characters,  and  covers  half  of  the 
surface. 

Upon  a  bas-relief  discovered  by  Sir  Henry  Layard 
at  Nineveh,  but,  unfortunately,  never  brought  to 
Europe,  there  was  a  representation  of  two  images  of 
gods,  carried  in  procession  upon  men's  shoulders,  ac- 
cording to  the  words  of  the  Hebrew  prophets.  The 
idols  wear  the  horned  tiaras,  of  which  we  have  spoken, 
surmounted  by  rosettes ;  they  appear  to  be  dressed  in 
embroidered  robes,  and  carry  in  their  hands,  not 
sceptres  or  swords,  but  symbolical  rings.  The  priests 
who  bear  them  wear  pointed  caps  and  short  tunics, 
c  c  2 


436  NEW  LIGHT   ON    THE   BIBLE. 

The  Babylonian  historian  Berosus  speaks  of  a 
certain  priestess  named  Sarachero,  who  was  the  dresser 
of  the  image  of  Beltis.  Under  her  charge  must  have 
been  the  robes  of  blue  and  crimson,  embroidered  like 
those  in  the  bas-relief,  of  which  the  prophet  Jeremiah 
speaks : — 

"The  customs  of  the  people  are  vain  :  for  one  cutteth  a  tree  out 
of  the  forest,  the  work  of  the  hands  of  the  workman,  with  the  axe. 

"  They  deck  it  with  silver  and  with  gold ;  they  fasten  it  with 
nails  and  with  hammers,  that  it  move  not. 

"They  are  upright  as  the  palm  tree,  but  speak  not :  they  must 
needs  be  borne,  because  they  cannot  go.  Be  not  afraid  of  them  ;  for 
they  cannot  do  evil,  neither  also  is  it  in  them  to  do  good. 

"  Silver  spread  into  plates  is  brought  from  Tarshish,  and  gold 
from  Uphaz,  the  work  of  the  workman,  and  of  the  hands  of  the 
founder  :  blue  and  purple  is  their  clothing  :  they  are  all  the  work  of 
cunning  men. 

"  Every  man  is  brutish  in  his  knowledge  :  every  founder  is  con- 
founded by  the  graven  image  :  for  his  molten  image  is  falsehood,  and 
there  is  no  breath  in  them." 

Besides  having  the  care'  of  the  gorgeous  robes  worn 
by  the  images,  the  dressers  of  the  gods  must  have  had 
charge  of  their  tiaras,  of  the  necklaces  and  bracelets 
which  they  wore,  and  of  the  emblems  which  they 
carried. 

Nabu-apal-iddin,  who  reigned  over  Babylon  from 
B.C.  883  to  B.C.  852,  so  far  as  his  date  can  be  ascer- 
tained, has  left  us  a  list  of  the  offerings  which  he  made 
to  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Sippara,  already  so  often 
mentioned.  It  includes  the  flesh  of  animals,  such  as 


ASSYRIAN   AND    BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  437 

sheep,  oxen,  and  goats,  fish,  honey,  and  wine ;  and  it 
also  enumerates  certain  garments  to  be  worn  by  the 
images  of  the  Sun-god  and  other  divinities.  These 
garments  were  partly  of  the  bluish-purple  already 
spoken  of;  but  beyond  that  our  knowledge  of  the 
Assyrian  language  does  not  allow  us  to  go.  The  other 
terms  used  in  the  description  of  the  garments  are  at 
present  unintelligible  to  us.  The  list  is  beautifully 
engraved  on  a  stone  tablet,  enclosed  in  a  clay  coffer, 
and  disinterred  by  Mr.  Rassam  among  the  ruins  of 
Sippara.  At  the  head  of  the  inscription  is  a  small  but 
carefully  executed  bas-relief,  representing  the  Sun-god 
on  his  throne,  attended  by  his  priests ;  above  the  figure 
of  the  god  is  the  disk  of  the  sun.  The  monument  is  to 
be  seen  at  the  British  Museum. 

The  religious  processions,  in  which  the  images  of  the 
gods  were  carried  through  the  streets,  while  the  multitude 
fell  down  in  adoration  before  them,  according  to  the  allu- 
sions of  the  prophets  and  the  scene  depicted  on  the  bas- 
relief,  are  mentioned  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  in  the  annals  of  Nabonidus  *  it 
is  particularly  stated  that  during  several  successive  years 
the  solemn  processions  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  in 
the  month  of  Nisan,  did  not  take  place,  owing  to  the 
negligence  of  the  king  or  to  the  disapproval  of  his  policy 
on  the  part  of  the  priests.  As  the  clay  tablet  tells 
us  : — 

"  Nebo  did  not  PQme  to  Babylon ;  Bel  d.id  ngt  come  forth." 
*  See  page  309  £, 


438  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

On  this  festival  it  was  customary  that  the  image  of 
the  god  Nebo  should  be  solemnly  carried  from  his  temple 
at  Borsippa,  to  greet  his  father,  Bel-Merodach,  in  his 
temple,  Bit-Saggil,  in  Babylon.  One  of  the  prayers 
used  at  this  festival  has  already  been  quoted.*  The  god 
Bel  came  out  to  meet  his  son.  It  was  at  this  festival 
that  the  oracles  of  Bel  were  communicated  to  the 
priests,  and  announced  by  them  to  the  king  and  people. 

Among  the  tablets  forming  the  library  of  Sardana- 
palus  there  are  a  certain  number  of  texts  containing  the 
ritual  to  be  observed  in  the  worship  of  the  gods  ;  but 
these  require  further  study  before  they  can  be  fully 
understood,  for  the  unusual  words  and  the  use  of  tech- 
nical terms  present  many  difficulties.  The  material 
for  comparison  is  not  large,  as  it  is  in  the  historical 
inscriptions. 

The  latter  documents,  however,  make  occasional 
mention  of  religious  rites.  From  them  we  learn  that 
the  King  of  Babylon  was  consecrated  and  legitimated 
by  a  rite  which  is  called  "  grasping  the  hands  of  Bel." 
Thus  we  read  of  Sargon,  who,  after  the  night  of 
Merodach-baladan  II.,  became  King  of  Babylon  : — 

"  In  his  thirteenth  year  [as  King  of  Assyria],  Sargon  grasped 
the  hands  of  Bel,  and  subdued  Babylonia." 

After  this  rite,  the  god  accepted  the  king,  who  thus 
yielded  himself  to  his  guidance,  and  henceforth  the 
monarch  looked  upon  himself  as  "  led  by  the  hand  of 
Merodach."  No  fact  is  more  clearly  to  be  learnt  from 

*  See  page  422. 


ASSYRIAN  AND   BABYLONIAN  RELIGION.  439 

the  inscriptions  than  that  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
sovereigns  attributed  their  legitimacy  to  their  acceptance 
by  the  gods  Ashur  or  Bel-Merodach.  It  is  they  who 
raise  the  kings  to  the  thrones  of  their  respective  coun- 
tries, and  make  them  the  rightful  rulers  :  without  the 
authority  of  the  gods  the  kings  have  no  rights.  In 
fact,  the  doctrine  of  the  "  divine  right  "  of  kings  lay 
at  the  root  of  the  whole  system  of  government  in  Meso- 
potamia; but  it  was  not  accompanied  by  the  more 
modern  doctrine  that  this  divine  right  was  necessarily 
inherited.  The  right  of  government  was  conferred  by 
the  gods  upon  whomsoever  they  chose,  whether  this  was 
the  son  of  the  preceding  monarch  or  a  man  of  private 
station,  or  even  a  foreigner,  like  Cyrus  the  Persian.  The 
kingly  authority  depended,  in  fact,  upon  the  favour  of 
the  priests,  and  he  was  most  assured  of  establishing  his 
throne  who  made  the  richest  offerings  to  the  temples  and 
supported  most  faithfully  the  recognised  worship.  Ac- 
cording to  Professor  Sayce,  Nabonidus  lost  his  throne 
because  he  tried  to  abolish  the  local  worships,  which 
formed  the  essence  of  Babylonian  religion,  and  to 
centralise  the  worship  of  the  country  in  Babylon — a 
policy  through  which  he  only  succeeded  in  offending 
the  other  cities  of  his  kingdom  and  in  irritating  the 
priests  of  Merodach,  who  saw  himself  injured  in  the 
insults  offered  to  his  brother-gods.  This  point,  how- 
ever, does  not  seem  quite  clear ;  for  it  might  be  thought 
that  the  priests  of  Merodach  would  have  reaped  great 
advantages  through  such  a  centralisation,  and  yet  it  is 
this  deity  in  particular  who  was  offended  by  the  policy 


440  NEW   LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

of  Nabonidus,  and,  rejecting  the  latter,  transferred  his 
protection  to  the  alien,  Cyrus. 

The  sacrifices  offered  by  the  Babylonians  and  Assy- 
rians seem  to  have  resembled  those  of  the  other  ancient 
nations  of  Western  Asia.  Sheep  and  cattle  were  slaugh- 
tered as  offerings  to  the  gods,  and  gifts  of  vegetable  pro- 
ducts were  also  made  to  them.  Libations  of  wine  were 
poured  out  before  them ;  special  sacrifices  were  offered 
every  month.  Nebuchadnezzar  says  that  at  the  great 
festivals  he  offered  to  Merodach  and  Nebo,  in  their 
temples,  bulls  without  blemish,  fish,  birds,  garlic,  honey, 
wine,  milk,  and  other  drinks — all  in  great  abundance. 
Many  of  the  offerings  were,  of  course,  devoted  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  priests.  To  the  latter,  tithes  were 
regularly  paid,*  and  besides  that,  they  possessed  large 
property  in  land  and  in  gold,  with  which  the  kings 
had  endowed  them.  The  kings  themselves  were  re- 
garded as  high  priests  of  the  gods,  and  the  latter  is 
one  of  their  proudest  titles.  There  seem  to  have  been 
several  orders  of  priests,  who  were  known  by  different 
designations. 

Of  other  ritual  observances  we  know  little.  There 
were  rites  of  purification  by  water,  and  it  seems  that 
vessels  of  lustral  water,  similar  to  those  represented  in 
the  bas-relief  of  the  temple  of  the  god  Khaldia  in 
Armenia,  stood  at  the  entrances  of  the  temples ;  the 
sculpture  shows  two  circular  vessels,  supported  on 
tripods,  and  in  shape  resembling  the  immense  "  Vase 
of  Amathus,"  now  in  the  Louvre.  Incense  was 
*  See  page  294 


ASSYRIAN   AND    BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  441 

burnt  in  honour  of  the  gods,  and  pillars  with  smoking 
censers  at  the  top  are  seen  in  the  bas-reliefs.  Hymns 
were  sung  to  the  accompaniment  of  wind-instruments 
and  harps.  Prayers  were  recited  by  the  priests,  usu- 
ally in  the  Accadian  language,  according  to  the  general 
law  of  religious  conservatism,  which  preserves  the 
ancient  language  of  religious  worship  even  when  it 
ceases  to  be  understood  by  the  vulgar.  It  has  been 
already  remarked  that  the  liturgical  formula?  of  Baby- 
lonia were  borrowed  from  the  Accadians,  together  with 
much  of  their  religion.  Possibly  the  priests  of  Baby- 
lonia were  an  hereditary  caste  of  Accadian  descent,  as 
certain  passages  in  ancient  authors  might  imply ;  but 
this  is  uncertain.  They  had,  of  course,  learnt  to  use 
the  Semitic  Babylonian  in  the  ordinary  intercourse  of 
life ;  and  they  bore  Semitic  names. 

One  of  the  bas-reliefs  from  the  palace  of  Ashur- 
nasir-pal  at  Calah  exhibits  this  monarch  offering  to 
the  gods  a  bull,  which  he  had  slain  during  one  of  his 
hunting  expeditions.  The  king,  dressed  in  his  royal 
robes,  and  with  the  peaked  tiara  of  royalty  upon  his 
head,  holds  in  one  hand  his  bow,  upon  which  he  leans, 
and  in  the  other  a  goblet  containing  the  wine  of 

o  o 

libation.  Behind  the  king  stands  the  chief  eunuch, 
holding  over  the  monarch  the  royal  umbrella,  which 
was  an  emblem  of  kingly  power  in  ancient  Assyria, 
from  whence  it  was  borrowed  by  the  Persians  and,  in 
later  times,  by  Mahometan  sovereigns.  Behind  the 
eunuch  are  two  of  the  great  officers  of  the  court,  and 
facing  the  king  are  three  figures,  one  with  the  fly-flap, 


442  NEW  LIGHT    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

while  the  others  stand  with  clasped  hands,  and  are 
probably  the  chief  priests.  Behind  the  latter  are  two 
musicians  with  harps,  or,  rather,  lyres,  which  they  strike 
with  the  plectrum,  while  the  priests  sing  their  hymns 
to  the  gods. 

Another  bas-relief,  which  proceeds  from  the  palace 
of  Sardanapalus  at  Nineveh,  represents  a  similar  scene  : 
the  offering  up  of  lions  slain  by  the  monarch  during 
one  of  the  lion-hunts  which  the  sculptures  of  his  reign 
so  vividly  reproduce  for  us.  The  ritual  followed  is 
similar  to  that  in  the  sacrifice  of  Ashur-nasir-pal. 

An  inscription  of  Sardanapalus  also  speaks  of  certain 
offerings  which  he  made  in  memory  of  his  ancestors. 

Some  of  the  mystical  purifications  and  other  reli- 
gious or  magical  rites  of  the  Chaldseans  were  handed 
down  to  comparatively  late  times,  and  were  borrowed 
by  some  of  the  Greek  philosophical  sects. 

Of  the  internal  arrangement  of  the  temples  we 
know  little.  At  the  extremity  appears  to  have  been 
the  shrine  of  the  god,  concealed  by  a  veil.  Before  this 
were  altars  and  tables,  on  which  the  offerings  were  laid. 
Many  lamps  were  kept  burning  in  the  temples,  which 
admitted  no  daylight  except  through  the  door. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  besides  the  gods, 
the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  mythology  included  an 
immense  number  of  spirits  who  inhabited  heaven  and 
earth ;  some  were  good,  and  some  were  evil.  To  the 
latter  diseases  and  misfortunes  of  all  sorts  were  attri- 
buted, and  the  sorcerers  and  enchanters  muttered  their 
incantations  for  the  purpose  of  driving  them  away. 


ASSYRIAN   AND    BABYLONIAN   RELIGION.  443 

One  of  the  oldest  legends  of  Babylonia  narrates  the 
attack  of  seven  evil  spirits  upon  the  moon.  Some  of 
the  sculptures  seem  to  represent  the  popular  idea  of 
such  malignant  demons,  in  the  figures  of  monsters, 
with  human  bodies  and  the  heads  of  wild  beasts,  or 
other  monstrous  forms  which  we  see  in  the  bas-reliefs. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

THE    ASSYRIAN    AND    BABYLONIAN    LANGUAGE. 

SINCE  the  language  of  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians 
was  a  Semitic  language,  closely  allied  to  the  Hebrew, 
the  monuments  of  it  that  have  been  discovered  during 
this  century  are  of  great  value  for  comparison  with  the 
language  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  as  the  study  of 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions  progresses,  it  maybe  expected 
that  the  two  branches  of  the  Semitic  family  of  speech 
will  throw  more  and  more  light  upon  one  another.  It 
is  usual  to  speak  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  as  a  single 
branch  of  language,  because,  so  far  as  it  can  be  judged, 
they  were,  though  undoubtedly  distinct  dialects,  yet  so 
nearly  identical  that  for  ordinary  purposes  they  may  be 
accepted  as  one.  As  it  has  already  been  remarked,  how- 
ever, the  cuneiform  system  of  writing  is  often  far  from 
giving  an  exact  reproduction  of  the  sounds  of  the  lan- 
guages which  it  expresses,  and  therefore,  probably,  many 
shades  of  difference  in  the  pronunciation  of  vowels  and 
consonants  escape  us,  which  would  form  further  proofs 
of  dialectical  differences  if  we  were  aware  of  them. 

No  other  language  of  the  Semitic  family  can  show 
written  monuments   contemporary  with    the    books    of 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.      445 

the  Hebrew  Canon,  with  the  exception  of  Phoenician,* 
which  is  illustrated  by  a  few  inscriptions,  some  of  which 
are  as  early  as  the  ninth  century  before  Christ,  but  which 
offer  only  scanty  material  for  comparison  with  the  sister 
language.  The  Phoenician  inscriptions  are  all  exceed- 
ingly brief,  with  the  exception  of  that  upon  the  sar- 
cophagus of  Eshmunazar,  King  of  Sidon,  and  that  upon 
the  monument  dedicated  to  the  goddess  Beltis  of 
Byblus,t  which  has  been  quoted  above ;  and  these  two 
inscriptions  are  of  comparatively  late  date,  for  Esh- 
munazar lived  in  the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  and 
Jehavmelech  certainly  not  earlier  than  the  latter  part  of 
the  sixth.  The  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  inscriptions, 
then,  form  the  only  philological  material  of  any  extent, 
composed  in  a  kindred  language,  contemporary  with  the 
Biblical  records  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  it  may  be 
said  that  there  are  inscriptions  from  Assyria  or  Baby- 
lonia contemporary  with  every  period  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment literature,  while  the  whole  mass  of  inscriptions 
already  discovered  is  of  very  considerable  bulk.  That 
portion  of  the  library  of  Sardanapalus,  for  instance, 
which  has  already  been  rescued  from  the  ruins  of  his 
palace,  consists  of  considerably  more  than  twelve  thousand 
clay  tablets,  inscribed  with  compositions  of  various  dates. 
Most  of  these  tablets,  it  must  be  confessed,  are  no  more 
than  fragments ;  but  these  fragments  are  gradually 
being  joined  together — a  work  of  extreme  labour,  and 
requiring  much  patience — so  that  in  time  the  tablets 

*  The  Moabite  stone  is,  of  course,  an  important  exception, 
t  See  page  216  f. 


446  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

will  all  be  restored  to  their  original  state  of  complete- 
ness. Then,  besides  this  library,  there  are  many  histo- 
rical cylinders  which  were  buried  at  the  corners  of  the 
platforms  on  which  the  palaces  and  temples  were 
erected,  and  which  are  covered  with  hundreds  of  lines 
of  writing  in  minute  characters.  Babylonia,  too,  has 
yielded  the  immense  collection  of  legal  and  commercial 
documents,  now  at  the  British  Museum,  which  were 
disinterred  among  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  or — in  far 
greater  quantities — at  Sippara,  the  seat  of  the  Sim-god. 
A  considerable  number  of  astronomical  texts  has  also 
been  found  at  Sippara — a  portion  of  the  scientific 
archives  of  the  priestly  astrologers  and  astronomers  of 
that  centre  of  learning.  From  Babylonia  also  come 
the  oldest  inscriptions  in  the  cuneiform  character,  many 
of  which  must  be  ascribed  to  periods  considerably  ante- 
rior to  the  beginning  of  the  second  millennium  before 
Christ,  and  which,  altogether,  form  a  large  mass  of 
material.  The  directly  historical  material  found  in 
Babylonia  is  large,  though  not  so  large  as  that  dis- 
covered in  Assyria,  and  it  is  of  the  greatest  scientific 
importance. 

Among  the  other  branches  of  the  Semitic  family  of 
languages — which  are  all  employed  for  the  elucidation 
of  their  elder  sister,  the  Hebrew — there  is  none  that 
can  boast  of  monuments  to  be  compared  in  point  of 
antiquity  with  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian.  The  most 
cultivated  of  the  Semitic  languages,  and  that  which 
possesses  the  largest  literature,  is  the  Arabic  ;  but  no 
monuments  of  the  Arabic  language  belong  to  a  time 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.     447 

older  than  the  seventh  century  after  Christ,  when  the 
rise  of  Islam  roused  the  Arab  tribes  to  a  new  life,  and 
when  Arabic  literature  began  with  the  Koran.  Certain 
songs  and  poems,  which  were  composed  before  the  age 
of  Mahomet,  were  probably  not  committed  to  writing 
before  his  time ;  and,  in  fact,  the  art  of  writing  was  not 
introduced  into  Arabia  long  before  the  birth  of  the 
prophet. 

The  ancient  Himyaritic  inscriptions  of  Southern 
Arabia  supply  a  very  scanty  material  for  philologists. 

The  Aramaic  language  is  divided  into  two  branches 
— the  Chaldee  and  the  Syriac.  To  the  former  branch 
the  Targums  and  the  Talmud  belong — monuments 
ranging  between  the  third  century  B.C.  and  the  sixth 

A.D. 

The  Syriac  literature  is  entirely  ecclesiastical  in 
character.  It  came  into  existence  after  the  conversion 
of  Syria  to  Christianity.  The  literary  monuments  of 
Syriac  are  fairly  numerous,  but  most  of  them  belong  to 
a  period  of  literary  activity  beginning  with  the  fifth 
century  after  Christ.  The  translation  of  the  Bible  is, 
of  course,  an  important  exception,  for  it  is  attributed  to 
the  second  century. 

Palmyra  has  yielded  a  few  inscriptions  of  the  time 
of  her  prosperity,  in  the  third  century  after  Christ. 
There  are  some  Aramaic  monuments  of  the  period  be- 
fore Christ,  consisting  of  the  short  inscriptions  on  gems 
and  on  clay  tablets,  where  they  accompany  the  cuneiform 
text,  and  the  Aramaic  texts  in  Egyptian  papyri.  The 
Aramaic  versions  accompanying  cuneiform  inscriptions, 


448  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

although  scanty,  are  of  great  interest  on  account  of 
the  confirmation  which,  so  far  as  they  go,  they  allbrd  of 
the  interpretation  of  the  Assyrian  characters  by  modern 
scholars.  The  following  inscription,  attributed  to  the 
seventh  century  before  Christ,  will  serve  as  an  instance 
of  the  longer  and  more  important  of  such  bi-lingual 
texts;  it  is  rare  to  find  one  of  such  length.  The 
Assyrian  text  runs  thus  : — 

"  Five  homers  of  barley  (1),  the  property  of  the  king's  son,  are 
lent  to  Khamatutu,  of  the  city  of  Khanduate.  Thirty-four  ka  shall 
be  paid  as  interest  per  homer. 

"Month  of  Tishri ;  year  of  the  eponymy  *  of  Nabu-shar-usur. 

"Five  reapers." 

The  Aramaic  version,  or  docket,  written  in  charac- 
ters resembling  the  ancient  Phoenician  letters,  is  thus 
translated : — 

"This  is  the  interest  of  the  prince  from  Kharaatut  of  Khad- 
duah  :  five  homers  at  thirty- four  ka  each.  Five  reapers. 

"  In  the  year  of  the  eponymy  of  Barnadi  Nabu-shar-usur." 

The  other  important  branch  of  the  Semitic  family  of 
languages  is  the  Ethiopic,  formerly  spoken  in  the  country 
now  called  Abyssinia  and  the  neighbouring  regions.  It 
is  closely  allied  to  Arabic,  and,  in  fact,  its  original  home 
was  in  Southern  Arabia.  The  Ethiopic  literature  is, 
like  the  Syriac,  entirely  ecclesiastical,  and  belongs  to  a 
period  of  religious  culture  which  followed  the  conversion 
of  Ethiopia  to  Christianity  in  the  fourth  century  after 
Christ.  The  modern  dialects  of  Abyssinia  are  much 

*  See  page  146. 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.     449 

mixed  with  words  borrowed  from  neighbouring  African 
tribes. 

There  are  other  branches  of  the  Semitic  family  even 
more  modern  than  the  Syriac,  Ethiopic,  and  classical 
Arabic.  In  modern  Babylonia  there  is  the  interesting 
Mandaitic  dialect,  and  in  Northern  Mesopotamia  there 
is  the  Neo-Syriac.  The  modern  dialects  of  Arabic,  also, 
are  interesting  illustrations  of  the  phenomena  of  lan- 
guage and  the  changes  which  it  undergoes. 

Of  all  the  kindred  tongues,  then,  the  Assyro-Baby- 
lonian  is  that  which,  when  it  is  fully  understood,  will 
be  compared  with  the  Hebrew  with  the  greatest  fruit. 
The  two  languages  are  contemporary ;  they  grew  up 
side  by  side  ;  and  the  monuments  which  we  possess  of 
them  belong  to  a  period  when  the  two  nations  which 
spoke  these  languages  were  constantly  in  communication 
with  one  another — when  the  intercourse  between  the 
Hebrews  and  the  people  of  Mesopotamia  was  almost 
uninterrupted.  A  large  proportion  of  the  Hebrew 
literature,  indeed,  belongs  to  a  time  when  the  kingdoms 
of  Israel  and  Judah  were  either  directly  subject  to  the 
Assyrian  monarch,  or  were,  at  least,  tributary  to  him. 

In  spite  of  this  close  connection,  however,  it  cannot 
be  denied  that,  so  far  as  our  knowledge  of  the  language 
allows  us  to  judge,  the  literature  of  Mesopotamia  con- 
tains nothing  to  be  compared,  in  point  of  style  or 
imagination,  with  the  writings  of  the  Hebrews.  Even 
the  chronicles  of  the  latter  are  infinitely  superior  to  the 
dry  annals  of  the  Assyrians,  with  their  perpetually- 
recurring  formulae  and  their  purely  official  statements  of 

1)    U 


450  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    11IPLE. 

acts.  In  the  series  of  legends  connected  with  the  name 
of  GHlgamesh  (Gisdubar)  there  is  probably  greater  merit 
in  the  literary  execution  ;  and  the  Descent  of  Ishtar  into 
Hades  is  even  to  be  placed  upon  a  higher  level  than 
these.  But  it  is  premature  to  discuss  the  literary  merit 
of  the  Assyrian  compositions  until  our  knowledge  of  the 
language  is  more  completely  established. 

To  point  out  the  words  and  grammatical  forms 
identical  or  analogous  in  the  two  languages  would, 
of  course,  be  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  a  popular 
work.  A  few  indications,  however,  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  two  branches  of  the  Semitic  family  of 
languages  which  were  spoken  respectively  on  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  and  in  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates  throw  light  upon  one  another  may  be 
of  some  interest.  The  Assyrian  word  signifying 
"God,"  for  example,  is  identical  with  the  word  El,  of 
the  same  meaning,  which  is  familiar  to  all  from  the 
compound  Beth-el,  or  "  the  House  of  God,"  and  many 
similar  compounds.  It  has  already  been  remarked  *  that 
"the  deep  "  in  the  account  of  the  creation  of  the  world 
is  mentioned  also  in  the  Assyrian  account  of  the  crea- 
tion, where,  by  her  union  with  the  abyss,  she  produced 
the  first  gods  as  her  offspring,  from  whom  all  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  subsequently  sprang.  It  was  the  same 
"  deep,"  or  "  sea,"  who  fought  with  Merodach,  according 
to  the  myth  of  the  struggle  between  the  darkness  of 
chaos  and  the  light  of  the  creating  sun. 

The  names  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  are  identical 

*  tie*  page  328. 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.      451 

in  Assyrian  and  Hebrew,  although,  as  in  all  other  cases, 
the  forms  of  the  words  are  somewhat  different.  When 
words  are  said  to  be  identical  in  two  different  languages, 
it  is,  of  course,  meant  that  the  root  of  the  word  can  be 
distinctly  recognised  as  identical  ;  each  dialect  has  its 
own  forms,  and  its  own  modifications  of  the  original 
root.  The  name  of  the  Tigris  in  some  of  the  Assyrian 
texts  appears  as  Idiglat,  or  Idlklat ;  and  the  first  syllable 
here  is  of  interest  because  it  belongs  to  an  old  form  of 
the  word  corresponding  to  the  Hebrew  Hiddekel,  but 
lost  in  the  Aramaic  and  Arabic  forms,  as  in  the  com- 
moner Assyrian  form,  -Diglat.  The  initial  H  of  the 
Hebrew  word  is  not  expressed  in  the  cuneiform  writing, 
which,  as  we  have  already  seen,  is  deficient  in  the  ex- 
pression of  aspirates  and  gutturals.  In  the  Persian 
form  of  this  name  (viz.,  Tiyrd],  not  only  was  the  first 
syllable  dropped,  but  the  /  was  turned  to  r,  according 
to  a  common  interchange  of  consonants ;  and  hence  the 
Greeks,  followed  by  the  Romans,  borrowed  their  name  of 
the  river  which  has  come  down  to  us  :  namely,  "  Tigris." 
The  syllable  at  at  the  end  of  the  Assyrian  word  is 
simply  the  feminine  termination,  while  the  Hebrews 
made  the  word  masculine.  The  other  Semitic  languages 
follow  the  Assyrian  in  making  the  name  of  the  great 
river  of  Assyria  feminine.  The  Euphrates  was  called 
by  the  early  Accadian  inhabitants  of  Babylonia  the 
"  river  of  Sippara  "  ;  and  the  characters  with  which  the 
Accadians  wrote  the  word  were  preserved  by  the  As- 
syrians and  Babylonians  as  the  commonest  mode  of 
writing  it  down  to  the  latest  times.  This  peculiarity 
D  D  2 


452  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

in  writing  is  an  instance  of  the  compound  ideograms 
mentioned  in  Chapter  IV.,*  which  formed  so  great  a 
difficulty  to  the  first  decipherers  of  the  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions. The  characters  used  to  express  the  name 
of  the  Euphrates,  if  read  phonetically,  would  be  pro- 
nounced ut.  Irip.  fnnn.  ki. ;  but  the  syllabaries  f  show 
that  these  characters,  when  preceded  by  the  character 
that  stands  as  the  ideogram  for  "  river,"  are  to  be  pro- 
nounced Puratlum.  This  last  name — allowing  for  the 
presence  of  the  termination,  which  is  dropped  in  Hebrew, 
although  preserved  in  classical  Arabic — is  obviously 
identical  with  the  Hebrew  name  of  the  Euphrates,  P'rdth 
— Lthe  Arabic  Fardtun  (Phurdtun).  In  some  of  the 
historical  texts,  on  the  other  hand,  the  name  is  written 
phonetically,  as  Pu-rat-tum.  The  use  of  ideograms  in 
the  Assyrian  system  of  writing  is  to  be  accounted  for,  as 
it  has  already  been  said,  by  the  supposition,  now  gene- 
rally accepted  as  an  ascertained  fact,  that  this  system  of 
writing  was  borrowed  from  the  early  "  Accadian  "  inhab- 
itants of  Babylonia,  who  spoke  a  language  entirely 
different  from  the  Semitic  family  of  languages.  Most 
of  the  Accadian  words  were  expressed  in  writing  by  a 
single  character,  exactly  as  words  are  expressed  in  the 
Chinese  system  of  writing.  Compound  words,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  expressed  by  a  group  of  two  or  more 
characters.  Now,  when  the  Semitic  Babylonians  bor- 
rowed the  Accadian  system  of  writing,  they  made  use  of 
the  Accadian  characters  in  two  different  ways.  Sometimes 
they  preserved  the  sound  of  the  character,  but  not  the 
*  See  page  121.  t  See  page  127. 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.     453 

sense,  and  used  it  to  express,  not  a  word,  but  simply  one  of 
the  syllables  of  their  own  words ;  and  thus  they  introduced 
the  principle  of  phonetic  writing  with  syllabic  characters. 
Sometimes,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Babylonian  scribes 
kept  the  Accadian  characters  or  groups  of  characters 
with  their  original  sense ;  and  in  this  case  they  gave  a 
new  sound  to  the  characters,  and  read  them  as  Semitic 
Babylonian  words.  This  is  the  origin,  according  to  the 
generally-received  hypothesis,  of  the  ideograms,  both 
simple  and  compound,  which  occur  in  the  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  texts,  where  they  are  mixed  up  with 
words  written  phonetically.  The  same  phenomena  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Japanese  system  of  writing,  which 
was  borrowed  from  the  Chinese,  who  speak  a  language 
different  from  that  of  the  former  nation.  The  Japanese 
sometimes  use  the  Chinese  characters  as  expressing 
sounds,  and  write  with  them  the  words  of  their  own 
language  on  the  phonetic  principle ;  and  sometimes  they 
keep  the  sense  of  the  Chinese  characters  and  alter  the 
sound,  reading  them  as  words  of  their  own  language. 
On  this  principle,  it  will  be  understood  how  the  Semitic 
Babylonians  and  Assyrians  sometimes  wrote  the  name 
of  the  Euphrates  with  the  characters  ut.  kip.  nun.  ki., 
which  they  nevertheless  pronounced  Pur  at  turn,  and  how 
they  often  wrote  "  Nebuchadnezzar  "  as  An.  pa.  sa.  du. 
sis.,*  and  read  these  characters  as  Nabu-ktidtir-usur,  or 
"  Nebo  defends  the  crown."  In  this  last  example  of 
ideographic  writing  the  first  character  means  "  god  "  in 
Accadian,  the  second  "  Nebo,"  the  third  and  fourth  to- 

*  See  page  121. 


454  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

gether  form  a  compound  ideogram  meaning  "  crown," 
and  the  last  character  signifies  "  defends."  A  curious 
instance  of  a  compound  ideogram  is  the  group  of  charac- 
ters which  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  employed  to 
express  the  idea  of  a  horse,  which  they  hardly  ever 
represented  in  the  phonetic  mode  of  writing.  They 
used,  instead  of  the  latter,  three  characters  which  sig- 
nify "  the  animal  of  the  land  of  the  sunrise  "  :  that  is 
to  say,  the  animal  which  was  originally  imported  into 
Babylonia  from  the  East.  The  second  and  third 
characters  would  ordinarily  be  pronounced  mat.  ra.  ;  the 
first  is  never  used  to  express  a  sound,  but  only  as  the 
ideogram  for  "  animal  "  ;  yet  the  group  of  three  charac- 
ters was  read  by  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  simply 
as  sisu — a  word  identical  with  the  Hebrew  sus. 

The  name  of  Abel,  the  son  of  Adam  and  Eve,  does 
not  seem  to  find  any  satisfactory  explanation  in  Hebrew ; 
but  in  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  the  word  ablu  or  aplu 
means  "  son,"  and  it  may  possibly  have  been  pronounced 
with  an  initial  aspirate  in  Babylonian,  as  in  the 
Hebrew  proper  name. 

It  is  related,  in  the  Hebrew  account  of  the  Deluge, 
that  Noah  pitched  the  ark  within  and  without.  The 
word  used  in  the  Hebrew  text  is  identical  with  that 
employed  also  in  the  Babylonian  story  of  the  Flood, 
quoted  above.  The  "  pitch  "  is  the  bitumen  which  is 
so  abundant  in  Babylonia,  where  there  are  bituminous 
springs  of  water  on  which  this  substance  floats,  and 
from  which  it  is  collected  by  the  natives.  The  most 
famous  springs  of  bitumen  are  on  the  Euphrates,  180 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.     455 

miles  above  Babylon,  at  Hit — a  place  mentioned  by 
Herodotus,  under  the  name  of  7*,  as  the  principal  source 
from  whence  this  substance  was  obtained  in  his  time. 
Strabo  says  that  there  are  many  bituminous  springs  in 
Babylonia,  but  does  not  mention  the  name  of  any  parti- 
cular place.  In  the  bituminous  springs  of  Hit  the  fluid 
bubbles  up  like  discoloured  water ;  the  bitumen  then 
forms  on  the  surface  in  lumps,  which  are  collected  in 
large  ladles  constructed  of  palm-branches.  After  cool- 
ing, the  bitumen  is  divided  into  square  masses,  and 
transported  down  the  Euphrates  to  Hillah.  Even  at 
the  present  day  it  is  largely  used  for  caulking  boats,  and 
for  coating  cisterns,  baths,  and  other  places  which  re- 
main in  contact  with  water.  So  conservative  are  the 
people  of  Mesopotamia  that  they  still  employ  on  the 
rivers  those  round  boats  of  osier,  coated  with  bitumen, 
which  we  are  so  familiar  with  in  England  through  the 
bas-reliefs  from  the  ancient  palaces  of  Sennacherib  and 
Sardanapalus,  in  which  they  are  represented ;  at  the 
present  day  they  are  called  kuffehs.  Two  rowers  occupy 
the  boat,  and  one  pulls  towards,  while  the  other  pulls 
from  him.  This  is  the  mode  of  rowing  which  we  see  in  the 
sculptures ;  and  Herodotus  gives  an  exact  description  of 
these  same  round  boats  and  of  the  mode  of  propelling 
them.  The  swift  currents  of  the  Mesopotamian  rivers 
and  their  numerous  shallows  make  it  difficult  or  impos- 
sible to  navigate  them  with  ordinary  boats  ;  only  boats 
drawing  very  little  water  can  be  employed.  Hence, 
besides  these  circular  kuffehs  now  mentioned,  the  com- 
monest craft  was  a  kind  of  raft,  supported  by  the  inflated 


456  NEW  LIGHT   ON    THE    BIBLE. 

skins  of  goats.  These  rafts  are  called  kelck  in  modern 
Arabic.  They  are  described  by  all  the  modern  travellers 
who  have  visited  Mesopotamia,  where  they  are  still  of 
the  same  construction  as  that  which  we  see  in  the  ancient 
sculptures.  The  rafts  are  carried  down  the  stream  by 
the  current,  and  the  only  oars  used  are  two  long  poles, 
with  a  kind  of  blade  at  one  end  consisting  of  pieces  of 
cane  fastened  together  ;  and  these  oars  are  used  rather 
as  rudders  than  for  the  purpose  of  propelling  the  raft. 
Inflated  skins  are  also  used  by  individuals  now,  as  in  the 
days  of  Sennacherib,  to  buoy  them  up  while  they  swim 
across  'the  river. 

In  ancient  Babylonia  and  Assyria  the  bitumen  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking  was  the  principal  sort  of 
cement  employed  in  the  construction  of  buildings.  The 
kings  often  tell  us  that  they  erected  a  temple  or  a  palace 
of  "  burnt  brick  and  bitumen,"  the  latter  word  being  the 
same  as  that  used  in  Genesis  in  the  account  of  the 
building  of  the  ark,  and  translated  "  pitch "  in  the 
Authorised  Version.  In  the  Hebrew  account  of  the 
Tower  of  Babel  it  is  stated  that  the  builders  used 
"  slime  "  or  bitumen  for  mortar,  although  the  Hebrew 
text  here  gives  a  different,  but  synonymous,  term. 

Bitumen,  however,  though  probably  cheaper  because 
it  was  provided  ready  to  hand  by  Nature,  was  not  so 
strong  a  cement  as  the  plaster  which  the  Babylonians 
manufactured  of  the  gypsum  which  is  so  common  in 
their  country.  This  lime-mortar  is  so  strong  that  at 
the  present  day  the  bricks  cemented  together  by  its 
means  are  so  firmly  fixed,  in  spite  of  the  lapse  of  ages, 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.     457 

that  they  can  only  be  removed  with  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty, whereas  those  laid  in  a  bed  of  bitumen  can  be 
removed  with  the  greatest  ease.  In  our  museums,  Baby- 
lonian bricks  may  be  seen  with  the  bituminous  cement 
still  adhering  to  them,  to  remind  us  of  the  materials  of 
which  the  Tower  of  Babel  was  constructed. 

Although  the  Hebrew  writer  does  not,  in  his  account 
of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  use  the  common  Babylonian 
word  for  bitumen  which  occurs  in  the  account  of  the 
construction  of  the  ark  by  Noah,  yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  uses  there  a  word  for  "  brick  "  which  is  very  familiar 
to  us  from  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.  The  art  of  build- 
ing with  brick  was  probably  invented  in  Babylonia,  as 
the  narrative  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  would  lead  us  to 
suppose.  The  geological  conditions  of  that  country 
forced  this  mode  of  building  upon  its  inhabitants.  Baby- 
lonia is  a  great  alluvial  plain,  formed  by  the  deposit 
during  many  ages  of  the  soil  brought  down  by  the  rivers 
Euphrates  and  Tigris.  The  rate  at  which  the  land  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Shatt  el- Arab,  or  confluence  of  the 
two  streams,  is  formed  at  the  present  day  is  said  to  be 
sixty-six  feet  a  year,  and  this  is  the  result  of  the  soil 
brought  down  by  the  rivers  and  deposited  upon  their 
banks.  The  alluvial  plain,  thus  brought  into  being,  con- 
sists of  the  finest  clay,  well-adapted  for  making  bricks. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  remarkable  absence  of 
the  other  materials  which  the  different  nations  of  the 
world  have  employed  for  raising  walls  and  constructing 
habitations.  Stone  is  almost  unknown.  The  only  tree 
which  grows  naturally  is  the  date-palm,  which,  indeed, 


458  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

is  more  abundant  and  flourishes  better  in  the  lower 
regions  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world.  But  the  palm,  although  it  can  be 
used  for  making  roofs,  is  almost  useless  for  the  construc- 
tion of  walls.  In  consequence,  therefore,  of  this  state 
of  things,  the  Babylonians  were  driven  by  necessity  to 
make  bricks,  and  to  fix  them  together  with  the  bitumen 
which  the  springs  offered  them  :  "  They  said  one  to 
another :  Go  to,  let  us  make  brick,  and  burn  them 
throughly.  And  they  had  brick  for  stone,  and  slime 
had  they  for  mortar." 

It  was  only,  however,  for  the  best  of  their  buildings 
that  the  Babylonians  employed  burnt  bricks.  They 
generally  used  bricks  that  were  simply  dried  in  the  sun, 
such  as  those  which  are  still  employed  for  the  construction 
of  ordinary  houses  by  the  peoples  of  the  East.  Conse- 
quently, they  had  two  words  to  express  the  different 
kinds  of  bricks.  The  word  for  the  burnt  brick  does  not 
seem  to  be  found  in  any  other  of  the  Semitic  languages 
except  Arabic ;  it  survived  in  Mesopotamia,  and  was 
adopted  by  the  Mahometan  conquerors  when  they  sub- 
dued that  country.  The  Hebrews  used  one  word  for  all 
kinds  of  bricks. 

As  we  have  frequently  observed  in  former  chapters, 
the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  bricks  were  stamped  with 
the  name  and  titles  of  the  king  in  whose  reign  they 
were  manufactured :  so  the  bricks  found  among  the 
ruins  of  Babylon  almost  all  bear  the  name  of  the  great 
Nebuchadnezzar,  son  of  Nabopolassar.  The  side  of  the 
brick  on  which  the  name  was  stamped  was  laid 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.     459 

wards.  The  die  used  for  stamping  must  have  been  of 
wood.  The  bricks  are  generally,  from  the  earliest  times 
downwards,  larger  than  our  modern  bricks  ;  and  the 
kiln-baked  bricks  are  of  a  much  finer  material,  and  much 
harder  than  those  to  which  we  are  accustomed.  The 
general  size  of  the  Babylonian  bricks  is  about  eight 
inches  square  and  four  inches  thick.  The  clay  was 
mixed  with  straw  or  chopped  reeds.  A  layer  of  reeds 
was  often  laid  between  two  layers  of  bricks,  to  give 
greater  cohesion  to  the  structure  ;  and  portions  of  these 
mats  of  reeds,  as  described  by  Herodotus,  may  be  seen 
in  our  museums  still  adhering  to  the  surface  of  the 
bricks. 

As  for  the  rude  structures  of  unbaked  bricks,  they 
were  often  united  together  by  a  simple  mortar  of  clay, 
and  so  came  sometimes  to  form  an  almost  homogeneous 
mass.  This  is  especially  seen  to  be  the  case  in  the  base- 
ments or  platforms  of  the  palaces,  which  formed  im- 
mense solid  masses  of  clay,  only  pierced  by  the  vaulted 
drains  which  carried  away  the  sewage  of  the  upper 
structures. 

In  speaking  of  the  account  of  the  Flood,  the  name 
Ararat  naturally  suggests  itself.  With  this  word,  as 
the  name  of  a  district  of  Armenia,  we  are  familiar  in  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions.  The  country  of  Urartu,  or  Ar- 
menia, was  invaded  by  many  of  the  great  conquerors, 
such  as  Sennacherib  and  Sardanapalus,  and  was  reck- 
oned among  the  countries  that  were  tributary  to  As- 
syria. 

When  we  come  to  the  ethnological  lists  of  Genesis, 


460  NEW   LIGHT    ON  THE  BIBLE. 

we  meet  with  many  names  that  are  known  in  the 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  literature.  Media  is  Madai 
in  Assyrian,  as  in  Hebrew.  Ionia,  or  Greece,  is  Javan 
in  both  languages  :  Sargon  speaks  of  the  Sea  of  Javan 
(the  Ionian  Sea,  or  Mediterranean),  and  Darius  speaks 
of  Greece  as  Javan  in  the  Babylonian  version  of  the 
inscriptions  on  his  tomb  and  on  the  rock  of  Behistun. 
Cush  is  a  name  given  by  the  Assyrians  to  Ethiopia ;  and 
the  name  of  Mizraim,  or  Egypt,  is  identical  in  Assyrian 
and  in  Hebrew,  although  the  latter  puts  it  in  the  dual  num- 
ber and  the  former  in  the  singular.  We  have  spoken  of 
the  name  of  Canaan  in  the  chapters  on  the  Tell  el-Amarna 
tablets;*  before  the  discovery  of  the  latter  documents 
the  name  had  not  been  found  in  any  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tion, and  the  districts  of  Canaan  and  Western  Syria  were 
only  recognised  under  another  name — that  of  "  land  of 
the  Amorites,"t  as  it  may  now  be  rendered.  The  name 
of  Babylon,  or  Babel,  is  identical  in  Hebrew  and  in 
Babylonian,  in  which  language  we  also  find  the  names 
of  Erech,  Accad,  and  Shinar.  Nineveh,  with  its  neigh- 
bouring cities,  has  already  been  discussed,  j  The  Philis- 
tines, or  Pilishti,  were  subdued  by  Sennacherib  and  other 
Assyrian  kings.  Sidon  is,  of  course,  very  frequently 
mentioned ;  its  princes  had  constantly  to  send  gifts  or 
tribute  to  the  supreme  kings  of  Assyria.  Heth,  "  the 
son  of  Canaan,"  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Hittites,  or 
"  sons  of  Heth  " ;  and  this  nation  was  one  of  those 
whose  territories  lay  nearest  to  the  regions  of  Assyria, 
and  were  most  frequently  overrun  by  the  armies  of  the 
*  See  page  308,  t  See  page  129.  %  See  page  334  ff. 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.      461 

latter  country.*  The  Assyrian  form  of  their  name  is 
Klmtti,  or  Haiti.  Besides  the  Hittites  and  Amorites, 
among  the  Canaanite  nations  we  are  well  acquainted 
with  the  Assyrian  forms  of  the  names  Arvad,  Zemar, 
Hamath,  Gaza.  Among  the  other  nations  in  the  ethno- 
logical list,  the  Hebrew  names  of  Elam  and  Aram 
are  identical  with  those  of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
language.  Further  researches  will  probably  identify 
with  certainty  many  more  of  the  names  in  this  interest- 
ing list. 

Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  as  it  has  been  said,  is  identical— 
at  least  in  name — with  the  extremely  ancient  city  of 
Uru,  the  ruins  of  which  are  now  called  Mukeyyer.  The 
historical  identification  depends  partly  on  the  name, 
partly  on  the  geographical  position  in  the  land  of  the 
Chaldees.  The  name  Camerina  also,  which,  according 
to  Eupolemus,  a  writer  of  the  second  century  before 
Christ,  was  given  to  Urie — a  town  of  Babylonia,  believed 
by  him  to  be  the  same  as  Ur  of  the  Chaldees — may 
mean  the  city  of  the  Moon-god,  to  whose  worship,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  ancient  Uru,  or  Mukeyyer,  was  espe- 
cially devoted.  Moreover,  Eupolemus  adds  that  Urie 
means  "  city  "  in  Babylonian,  and  this  is  not  improbably 
the  signification  of  the  ancient  name  of  Uru  preserved 
in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions. 

The  words  used  by  the  Hebrews  for  the  rising  and 
setting  of  the  sun  are  identical  with  those  of  the  Assy- 
rians, and  mean  literally  f  the  "  coming  out "  and 
"  going  in  of  the  sun." 

*  See  pp.  362,  366,  etc.  t  See  page  415. 


462  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE   BIBLE. 

As  we  have  seen,*  the  common  formula  of  saluta- 
tion among  the  Semitic  nations,  including  the  ancient 
Hebrews,  was  also  that  in  use  among  the  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians. 

The  name  of  the  Biver  Nile  was  borrowed  by  the 
Hebrews  from  the  Egyptians,  among  whom  the  word 
meant  simply  "  the  river,"  since  it  is  the  only  river  in 
their  country.  The  same  name  was  also  borrowed  by 
the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  to  designate  the  great 
river  of  Egypt. 

The  Assyrians  also  did  as  the  Hebrews  did  in  using 
the  title  given  by  the  Egyptians  to  their  king  as  if  it 
were  a  proper  name.  "  Pharaoh,  King  of  Egypt,"  is 
the  phrase  used  in  the  inscriptions  of  Sargon,  just  as  it 
is  in  Genesis  and  Exodus.  The  word  Pharaoh,  as 
everyone  knows,  simply  means  the  "great  house"  or 
"  palace,"  and  was  a  respectful  way  of  speaking  of  the 
king  himself.  The  Assyrian  word  for  "  palace  "  or  "great 
house "  seems  to  be  used  occasionally  in  the  same 
way,  not  only  in  the  passage  from  the  Tell  el-Amarna 
tablets  quoted  above, f  where  it  simply  translates  the 
Egyptian  title,  but  in  passages  that  refer  to  the  King  of 
Assyria,  as  in  that  quoted  above,}  where  Sammuramat 
is  called  "  wife  of  the  palace  "  or  "  great  house." 

The  word  which  denotes  "  king "  in  Assyrian  is 
not  the  same  as  that  used  to  designate  the  kings  of  Israel 
and  Judah.  It  is  well  known  in  Hebrew,  however,  in 
which  language  it  is  applied  to  princes,  nobles,  and 
high  officials.  On  the  other  hand,  the  verb  from  which 
*  See  page  171  f.  f  See  page  219.  J  See  page  424. 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.      463 

the  Hebrew  word  meaning  "  king "  is  derived  is  fre- 
quently used  in  Assyrian,  with  the  signification  "to 
take  possession  of,"  "  to  rule,"  and  the  substantive  in 
question  is  used  to  denote  Syrian  princes. 

The  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word  degel,  "a  stan- 
dard," is  explained  by  the  Assyrian,  which  possesses  a 
verb,  dagdlu,  meaning  "  to  look  at."  This  verb  is 
especially  used  in  the  common  phrase,  "  to  look  to  the 
face  "  of  a  king — that  is  to  say,  to  acknowledge  sub- 
mission to  him  and  to  seek  his  favour.  The  standard 
of  an  army  or  of  a  tribe  was,  of  course,  intended  to  be 
the  object  to  which  all  should  look,  that  it  might  guide 
their  movements  in  battle  or  on  the  march. 

The  frequent  mention  of  blue  and  crimson  stuffs, 
expressed  by  identical  words  in  Hebrew  and  Assyrian, 
has  already  been  noticed.  There  is  another  word  for 
"  variegated  stuffs  "  used  in  both  languages.  The  word 
occurs  in  the  Book  of  Ezekiel.  Our  Authorised  Version 
translates  it  "  rich  apparel."  The  prophet  is  speaking 
of  the  trade  of  Tyre,  and  mentions,  among  other  things, 
the  garments  dyed  with  blue,  the  embroideries  from 
Mesopotamia  and  Syria,  and  the  cedar-chests  bound  with 
cords,  which  contained  variegated  stuffs  of  great  value 
ready  for  exportation  to  the  markets  of  Greece  and 
Egypt,  Such  variegated  stuffs  were  laid  up  among  the 
treasures  of  Oriental  princes,  and  were  frequent!}'  carried 
off  as  spoil  by  the  Assyrian  invaders. 

Naturally,  the  peculiarly  Assyrian  or  Babylonian 
words  borrowed  by  the  writers  of  the  Old  Testament 
are  found  again  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.  Such 


464  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

words  are  "  tartan,"  meaning  "  general  of  the  troops  "  ; 
"  Babshakeh,'5  vvliicli  was  the  title  of  one  of  the  great 
officers ;  *  the  word  s'gdnim,  which  is  used  by  Ezekiel 
and  Jeremiah  of  the  Babylonian  governors,  and  trans- 
ferred after  the  captivity  to  the  Jewish  officials. 

These  are  a  few  indications  of  the  help  afforded  by 
the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  language  to  the  student 
of  Hebrew  in  the  better  understanding  of  the  vocabulary 
of  the  latter  language.  The  grammar  affords  also  valu- 
able matter  of  comparison.  Eventually,  without  doubt, 
almost  every  word  and  grammatical  form  in  Hebrew  will 
be  able  to  be  compared  with  those  of  the  sister  language 
of  Mesopotamia ;  and  already  that  is  the  case  with  a 
large  number  of  words  and  forms.  What  a  mass  of 
new  material  is  here  provided  for  the  student  of  the 
Semitic  languages,  and  how  unexpected  a  resurrection 
of  a  branch  of  that  family  of  speech  thought  to  be  lost 
for  ever !  It  was,  indeed,  buried  under  the  rubbish  of 
ruined  temples  and  palaces,  but  it  was  not  dead  ;  or,  at 
least,  it  has  been  brought  to  life  again  by  the  labours 
of  modern  explorers  and  decipherers.  And  the  monu- 
ments of  this  language  have  this  special  interest :  that 
they  are  absolutely  authentic  representatives  of  the 
times  in  which  they  were  written — there  has  been  no 
corruption  of  the  original  texts  by  copyists,  no  altera- 
tions and  misunderstandings  which  might  leave  us  in 
doubt  as  to  the  original  text — but  we  have  here  the 
original  text  itself,  preserved  unchanged  on  clay  and 
stone  through  thousands  of  years. 

*  See  pp.  317  and  370. 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.      465 

The  cuneiform  inscriptions  snow  us  the  other  side  of 
the    picture   painted   by  the    Hebrew   prophets.      The 
latter  tell  us  of  the  supremacy  of  Assyria  or  Babylonia 
in  Western  Asia  during  the  eighth,  seventh,  and  sixth 
centuries  before  Christ.     Ezekiel  represents   Assyria  as 
"  a  cedar  in  Lebanon  with   fair  branches,   and    with  a 
shadowing  shroud,  and  of  an  high  stature."     Alluding 
to  the  great  rivers  of  Mesopotamia,  and  to  the  network 
of  canals  which  saved  that  country  from  the  injurious 
effects  of  the  periodical  floods  and  ensured  its  prosperity, 
the  prophet  says  that  "  the  waters  made  him  great,  the 
deep  set  him  up  on  high  with  her  rivers  running  round 
about  his  plants,  and  sent  out  her  little  rivers  unto  all 
the  trees  of  the  field."     The  greatness  of  the  Assyrian 
Empire  is  typified  by  the  growth  of  the  cedar :  "  His 
height  was  exalted  above  all  the  trees  of  the  field,  and 
his  boughs  were  multiplied,  and  his  branches  became 
long  because  of  the  multitude  of  waters,  when  he  shot 
forth.     All  the  fowls  of  heaven  made  their  nests  in  his 
boughs,  and  under  his  branches  did  all  the  beasts  of 
the  field  bring  forth  their  young,  and  under  his  shadow 
dwelt  all  great  nations.     Thus  was  he  fair  in  his  great- 
ness, in  the  length  of  his  branches :  for  his  root  was  by 
great  waters.     The  cedars  in  the  garden  of  God  could 
not  hide  him :  the  fir  trees   were  not  like  his  boughs, 
and  the  chestnut  trees  were  not  like  his  branches ;  nor 
any  tree  in  the  garden  of  Grod  was  like  unto  him  in  his 
beauty.     I  have  made  him  fair  by  the  multitude  of  his 
branches :  so  that  all  the  trees  of  Eden,  that  were  in  the 
garden  of  Grod,  envied  him."     Under  this  image  of  the 

E   E 


466  NEW  LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

cedar  overtopping  all  other  trees,  and  sheltering  all 
nations  under  its  branches,  the  prophet  indicates  to  us 
the  impression  that  the  Assyrian  power  made  upon  its 
subjects  and  contemporaries.  The  cuneiform  inscriptions, 
on  the  other  hand,  show  us  how  the  Assyrians  regarded 
the  nations  whom  they  subdued  and  plundered,  the  con- 
tempt which  the  conquerors  felt  for  those  who  dared  to 
resist  their  sovereign  power,  and  their  ruthless  disregard 
of  the  sufferings  inflicted  on  those  from  whom  they  chose 
to  demand  obedience  and  tribute.  We  see  from  the  native 
records  how  the  Assyrians  became  so  great  and  wealthy 
that  no  other  nation  in  Asia  could  be  compared  with 
them ;  how  all  the  cities  of  Syria  and  Armenia  were 
ransacked  for  their  gold  and  silver  and  purple  stuffs, 
which  were  stored  in  the  treasuries  of  Nineveh  ;  how 
all  the  tribes  of  Western  Asia  hastened  to  bring  the 
heaviest  tribute  and  to  lay  it  at  the  feet  of  the  cruel  con- 
querors, which  they  kissed  in  token  of  abject  submis- 
sion, in  order  that  they  might  save  themselves  from 
death,  torture,  or  slavery. 

When  the  supremacy  was  transferred  to  Babylon,  at 
the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  the  new  dynasty  carried 
on  the  policy  of  their  Assyrian  predecessors  for  a  short 
period,  until  the  Persian  conquest  altered  the  face  of 
Western  Asia,  and  introduced  an  era  of  comparative 
peace  and  cessation  from  perpetual  ravage  and  plunder. 
Habakkuk  speaks  of  the  Chaldasans  as  "  that  bitter  and 
hasty  nation,  which  shall  march  through  the  breadth  of 
the  land,  to  possess  the  dwelling-places  that  are  not 
theirs."  He  describes  them  as  "terrible  and  dreadful"; 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.     467 

"their  horses  also  are  swifter  than  the  leopards,  and  are 
more  fierce  than  the  evening  wolves  :  and  their  horsemen 
shall  spread  themselves,  and  their  horsemen  shall  come 
from  far ;  they  shall  fly  as  the  eagle  that  hasteth  to  eat. 
They  shall  come  all  for  violence  :  their  faces  shall  sup 
up  as  the  east  wind,  and  they  shall  gather  the  captivity 
as  the  sand.  And  they  shall  scoff  at  the  kings,  and  the 
princes  shall  be  a  scorn  unto  them  :  they  shall  deride 
ever}''  stronghold ;  for  they  shall  heap  dust,  and  take 
it."  This  is  the  aspect  which  the  armies  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar presented  to  his  enemies,  for  whose  over- 
throw he  thanks  his  gods,  who  had  made  him  ruler 
over  the  whole  world,  and  filled  his  treasury  with  the 
spoils  of  all  nations. 

It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  history  of 
Western  Asia,  from  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century 
before  Christ  down  to  the  sixth,  is  the  history  of  As- 
syria and  Babylonia.  Armenia,  Syria,  and  parts  of  Asia 
Minor  were  tributary  to  them  during  a  great  part 
of  that  period,  and  the  influence  which  these  great 
nations  exercised  upon  the  civilization  of  the  surround- 
ing countries  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  These  con- 
siderations show  of  what  importance  the  study  of  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  must  be  for  the  understanding  of 
the  history  of  the  people  of  Israel.  The  material  cul- 
ture of  the  Israelites  must  have  been,  in  great  measure, 
borrowed  from  the  example  of  the  ruling  nation,  and  the 
greater  wealth  and  more  extensive  commerce  of  Nineveh 
and  Babylon  must  have  enabled  them  to  impose  their 
modes  of  life  upon  their  less  important  neighbours. 


468  NEW   LIGHT    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

This  conclusion  is  strengthened  when  we  consider 
the  antiquity  of  the  influence  exercised  by  the  States  of 
Mesopotamia  upon  the  neighbouring  lands,  and  espe- 
cially upon  Syria.  We  have  seen  that  between  the 
twelfth  and  sixth  centuries  this  supremacy  was  almost 
uninterrupted;  but  at  a  much  earlier  period  it  had 
already  existed.  It  is  true  that  this  earlier  period  was 
separated  from  the  later  by  an  age  of  Egyptian  supre- 
macy under  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  followed  by  a  period 
during  which  the  Hittites  and  Amorites  were  left  to 
themselves ;  but  the  earlier  period,  beginning  with  the 
conquests  of  Sargon  of  Agade  in  Phoenicia,  must  have 
left  ineffaceable  traces  behind.  As  we  have  seen  from  a 
study  of  the  Tell  el-Amarna  tablets,  this  earlier  period 
of  Babylonian  supremacy  left  behind  it  the  use  of  the 
Babylonian  language  and  system  of  writing  in  Syria  and 
Canaan,  as  well  as  in  countries  further  east,  and  perhaps 
further  north,  which  came  within  the  range  of  early 
Babylonian  civilization.  The  connection  of  the  Baby- 
lonian supremacy  in  those  remote  days  with  the  emi- 
gration of  Abraham  and  his  family  from  the  Babylonian 
city  of  Ur  into  Canaan  cannot,  indeed,  be  traced  at 
present ;  but  it  is  certainly  important  to  know  from  the 
Babylonian  records  that,  probably  before  the  time  of 
Abraham,  Syria  and  Canaan  had  been  conquered  by  the 
Babylonian  princes :  had  been  influenced  by  the  culture 
of  Babylonia  so  far  that  they  had  borrowed  its  language 
for  literary  purposes  and  its  system  of  writing ;  and  not 
improbably  had  formed  part  of  a  Babylonian  empire, 
just  as  they  did  in  the  days  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 


THE  ASSYRIAN  AND  BABYLONIAN  LANGUAGE.      169 

But,  after  all,  this  close  connection  between  Canaan 
and  Mesopotamia,  both  in  earlier  and  in  later  times, 
only  accentuates  more  strongly  the  independent  cha- 
racter of  the  religious  literature  and  the  religious 
practice  of  the  Jews.  How  much  more  marvellous 
does  the  Old  Testament  become  when  it  is  clearly  un- 
derstood that  it  was  written  by  members  of  a  small 
nation  or  tribe,  under  the  overshadowing  influence  of 
the  supreme  power  of  Assyria  or  Babylonia  !  The  sur- 
rounding nations,  doubtless,  had  their  own  local  gods  ; 
but  most  of  these  were  the  same  as  those  of  Babylonia, 
and  were  probably  worshipped  with  similar  rites.  Baal, 
or  Bel,  Ishtar,  or  Ashtoreth,  Bimmon,  Dagon,  Tammuz, 
are  gods  common  to  the  Semitic  races  of  Western  Asia, 
and  these  were  the  principal  deities  of  the  nations 
around  Samaria  and  Judah.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that 
the  Israelites  and  many  of  the  Jews  adopted  these 
worships ;  but  the  priests  and  prophets  of  Jehovah 
kept  up  a  different  form  of  faith ;  and  the  thought 
that  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel  preached  and  wrote,  not  only 
in  the  face  of  their  apostate  countrymen,  but  in  spite 
of  the  political  supremacy  and  overshadowing  culture 
of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  adds  to  the  deep  impression 
produced  by  the  study  of  their  books. 


THE    END. 


UOOD     LI  urvnn  i 


A     000658157     3 


